Modi defends India as democracy

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India is a mother of democracy where diverse perspectives are discussed openly, as protests demanding electoral reforms intensify.

“A wide range of issues are debated openly, and diverse perspectives are discussed by the people”

Cockroach party members detained

Key members of the Cockroach Janta Party were detained for protesting without permission as the viral pseudo-political movement demands the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

One hundred thirty million voters struck off

Names of one hundred thirty million people have been struck off the voter list after the Election Commission began conducting special intensive revisions to update voter lists across India last year.

Thousands march to Supreme Court

On Monday, thousands reportedly joined opposition party leaders in a march to the Supreme Court in Delhi to file a petition against the Election Commission's revisions to the voter list.

Gandhi says people won't be intimidated

Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition in India, said the huge crowds showed people would not be intimidated by the government and that everyone was standing together in one protest.

“There are no parallel protests. It's one protest, and it's a protest where everybody is standing together”

Mass detentions spark UN concern

Over the weekend, Indian security forces detained young people, opposition politicians, YouTubers, lawyers and journalists. The United Nations Human Rights Office raised concerns over mass detentions and called for respect for peaceful assembly.

Heavy-handed tactics could broaden unrest

Experts told CNBC that while current protest scale does not threaten India's stability, heavy-handed police crackdowns could galvanize larger groups and create volatility that impacts investor behavior.

“If security forces keep taking heavy-handed approaches, this will create a more volatile environment that could make protestors angrier and galvanize even larger groups of marchers”

Government defends voter list changes

The Bharatiya Janata Party defended the Election Commission, saying deletions accounted for twenty eight million deaths, sixty eight million relocations, ten million duplicates and thirty million absent or non-traceable voters.

Constitutional questions raised over revisions

Milan Vaishnav of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said the sweeping revisions raise serious constitutional and legal questions.The core demand is for Kumar to resign and the special intensive revision process to be modified.