Hundreds protest against CEC and SIR at Gandhi statue in London as rival group chants 'Modi, Modi'

Hundreds of people gathered around the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in London’s Parliament Square on Saturday to protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, as a smaller group across the square chanted “Modi, Modi” in support of the government.

Metropolitan Police officers stood between the two crowds, as each side tried to shout the other down.

The “Stop Vote Chori” protest was organised by the youth wing of the Indian Overseas Congress and backed by several diaspora platforms, among them Save Democracy, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) UK and the South Asia Solidarity Group. The YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was the keynote speaker.

Rathee’s message

Speaking in Hindi, Rathee said he had come to talk to Indians and NRIs, not to invite outsiders into the dispute. “We don’t want any foreign interference. I am here at Parliament Square to address Indians and NRIs,” he said. “It is important to spread the message against ‘vote chori’ in our country.”

He said the protests would end the moment the Chief Election Commissioner was replaced by someone agreed upon by both the government and the Leader of the Opposition.

The crowd chanted “Inquilab Zindabad” and “Vande Mataram”, and the Preamble to the Constitution was read out.

Rathee’s appearance in London follows the issue of bailable warrants by a Delhi court in a 2018 defamation case over his video “BJP IT Cell Part 2”. He had been detained by Gurugram Police on 10 October before he could join the protests in Delhi.

The counter-protest

India Diaspora (ID) UK had called on Indians in London to turn out against the rally. Its founder, Hirdesh Gupta, defended the government’s handling of the electoral roll. “The Indian diaspora in the UK stands firmly, shoulder to shoulder, with Modi Ji and his government,” he said.

A week of protests abroad

Saturday’s rally was the latest in a series that began on Tuesday with an “Emergency Protest” called in support of the Cockroach Janta Party’s demands, which include Kumar’s removal and the scrapping of the SIR. A smaller protest and counter-protest took place outside the High Commission of India in London on Friday.

The Election Commission says the SIR is meant to clean up electoral rolls by flagging voters who have died, shifted, been listed twice or are otherwise ineligible.

The protests have drawn attention abroad. Six US Democratic lawmakers have urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to raise the protest crackdown and the voter rolls with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during his six-day visit to India.