A student organisation in the US has expressed solidarity with the protests taking place in New Delhi demanding electoral reforms and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.In a statement, the Casteless Caucus, a student organisation at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, raised concerns over the Election Commission’s handling of voter roll revision and called for the release of those it described as unjustly detained after Saturday’s protests in New Delhi.Hundreds of protesters were detained on Saturday after security forces prevented a planned demonstration by the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) from reaching Jantar Mantar in central Delhi.However, several detainees, including CJP’s top leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, were released by Jattvibeday. Delhi Police has not disclosed the total number of people detained during the protests.The protest was called to demand electoral reforms and the resignation of CEC Kumar over allegations of manipulation of voter lists.The CJP, a satirical youth-led movement that is not registered as a political party, has accused Kumar of favouring the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) through the updating of electoral rolls under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise across several states starting last year.The Election Commission and the BJP have denied the allegations.The poll panel has described SIR as a routine exercise to remove the names of deceased, duplicate or ineligible voters, while denying political interference. But it has not responded to demands for Kumar’s resignation.Several political leaders belonging to opposition parties were among those who were briefly detained on Saturday.In its statement on Saturday, the Harvard Kennedy School-based student group questioned the exclusion of more than 130 million names from India’s electoral rolls.It also called on the Election Commission to publicly respond to questions raised by citizens, civil society organisations and opposition parties, and to respond to pleas seeking CEC Kumar’s resignation.”We strongly condemn the Indian Government’s dismissal of these concerns, and stand in full solidarity with the protests led by the youth, and their unjust suppression of the constitutional right to peaceful assembly through mass detention of protesters, journalists, student leaders, and political figures,” the group said.”Every protester in illegal custody must be released,” it said.The group demanded an independent inquiry into the voter roll revision process, restoration of the January 2025 voter rolls for now, and rolling back of a 2023 law governing the appointment of election commissioners.It also expressed support for Mehr Pasricha, an alumna of the organisation and head of policy at the CJP.On Saturday, the United Nations human rights office also expressed concern over mass detentions during the protests and urged Indian authorities to respect the right to peaceful assembly and immediately release anyone arbitrarily detained.India’s Permanent Mission in Geneva, however, rejected the UN office’s concerns as “misplaced” and an “unwarranted interference” in the country’s internal affairs, saying the right to peaceful assembly was guaranteed by the Constitution, subject to reasonable restrictions in the interest of public order.