The UN rights office raised concerns over mass detentions during Delhi protests, prompting a sharp rebuttal from India. The clash has intensified scrutiny of protest curbs, electoral reform demands and democratic freedoms.

The UN human rights office on Saturday raised concerns over mass detentions during large protests in Delhi and urged Indian authorities to respect the right to peaceful assembly and immediately release anyone arbitrarily detained. India rejected the remarks, with its Permanent Mission in Geneva calling the concerns “misplaced” and an “unwarranted interference” in the country’s internal affairs.

The protests were linked to a planned demonstration by the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which was stopped from reaching Jantar Mantar in central Delhi. The group was demanding electoral reforms and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over allegations of manipulation of voter lists, charges denied by the Election Commission and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

In a statement, UN human rights spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said the office was “concerned by reports of mass detentions in India of demonstrators, protest leaders, members of civil society organisations, lawyers and journalists, before and during today’s large-scale demonstrations in Delhi”. He said, “We call on the authorities to ensure that the right to peaceful assembly is fully respected and fulfilled,” and added that “restrictions on peaceful protests must meet strict tests of necessity and proportionality”.

Al-Kheetan also called on Indian authorities to ensure that law enforcement personnel exercise “utmost restraint” in responding to peaceful protesters, in line with the country’s democratic traditions and human rights obligations. “All those arbitrarily detained must be immediately and unconditionally released,” he said, while also urging the authorities to “engage in meaningful dialogue to address the broadly held concerns expressed”.

Hundreds of protesters were detained as security forces moved to stop the march. Delhi Police had refused permission for the protest, and heavy security arrangements and roadblocks prevented most demonstrators from reaching Jantar Mantar, where the CJP had planned to hold the demonstration.

The CJP said its founder Abhijeet Dipke and two other leaders, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were detained shortly after their flight from Mumbai landed in Delhi. Delhi Police have not publicly commented on their detentions.

Responding to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Permanent Mission of India in Geneva said, “The right to peaceful assembly is guaranteed by our Constitution and safeguarded by robust institutions, an independent judiciary and a free media.” In a social media post, it added, “As in every democracy, Indian citizens exercise this right subject to reasonable restrictions in the interest of public order.”

The mission said the authorities had acted in accordance with the law and that Indian courts remained available to all for redressal of grievances. “The OHCHR’s concerns are therefore misplaced and constitute an unwarranted interference in the internal affairs of India,” it said. It also asked the UN rights office to pay comparable attention to large protests in other parts of the world and said it should act in line with its mandate of impartiality and non-selectivity.

The CJP and opposition parties have accused Kumar of favouring the BJP in the updating of electoral rolls. The Election Commission has said its nationwide Special Intensive Revision is a routine exercise to remove the names of dead, duplicate or ineligible voters. While tens of thousands of people in several states have alleged that their names were wrongly removed from electoral rolls, the Election Commission has denied allegations of political interference.

The CJP is a Gen Z-led satirical movement and is not registered as a political party. It emerged in May after Dipke posted a question on X in response to India’s chief justice likening some unemployed young people to “cockroaches”. The post went viral and the movement took shape. The group later became a major protest movement during weeks of summer demonstrations demanding education reforms and the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Those protests ended in July after Pradhan resigned. The CJP has now returned to the streets with demands for electoral reforms and Kumar’s resignation.

The BJP criticised Saturday’s protests and accused opposition groups led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and associates of Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal of trying to destabilise the country. BJP president Nitin Nabin alleged that the groups were pursuing their political agendas “at the behest of foreign forces”. He also accused them of refusing to accept the people’s verdict and trying to create instability, and said Indian democracy was strong enough to thwart their efforts. The day’s developments centred on the protests in Delhi, the detentions that followed, the UN’s intervention and India’s rejection of it.

With PTI Inputs