Home ministry extends 273 paramilitary companies in Delhi to 31 October amid 'flash protest' fears

The number is up from the 220 paramilitary companies reported for the 16 October march. A company has a sanctioned strength of 100 personnel, but the number actually available for duty is usually about 70 to 72. On that basis the deployment amounts to roughly 19,000 to 19,700 personnel, an estimate calculated from the reported figures and not an official number.

How it started

The forces were brought in for the protests called by the Cockroach Janta Party, a youth-led movement. Its protests at Jantar Mantar in the second week of October demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls. The Election Commission denies any wrongdoing. Opposition parties later took up the same demand in their own protests. On 16 October the party held a "Lehra Do Tiranga" demonstration, for which the city was reported to have deployed 6,000 police and 220 paramilitary companies. Delhi Police later registered several FIRs over that event.

Jantar Mantar has been de-notified as an official protest site, and the police have used preventive detentions and heavy security to stop gatherings without permission. Fourteen people, among them party leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka and member Ajinkya Shinde, were detained for entering the site on 13 October. Das and Ranka were jailed and were freed on Wednesday on bonds and written undertakings not to call protests there, and the Crime Branch has summoned them for questioning.

Delhi's police force reports to the Union home ministry, not to the city government, which is why the ministry decides on reinforcements. Paramilitary companies are normally stationed elsewhere, including in conflict areas, so a long stay in the capital is a call on forces that have other work.

The extension also lands on a calendar crowded with possible flashpoints. Farm unions in the Samyukt Kisan Morcha called protests at district centres on Friday and a larger demonstration, including in Delhi, on 26 November. Delhi Police have cleared a rally by the INDIA bloc at Ramlila Grounds on 1 November. The government is also considering a special session of Parliament on delimitation and women's reservation, and a power employees' strike in neighbouring Haryana has added to the pressure on the capital region.

Officials describe the extension as necessary to maintain law and order. The ministry has not given a date for when the forces will leave or said whether a third extension is possible. The reports, which come from a single news agency story carried by several outlets, do not mention the cost of the deployment or the places where companies are stationed.

Government strategists distinguish the earlier agitation over the paper leak in the national medical entrance exam, which they say moved young people, from the present one, which they call political. For residents the effect is visible: barricades, closed Metro stations and diversions around central Delhi on days when protests are expected.