New Delhi, Jul 20 (PTI): White clouds of teargas over Parliament House, the insistent chant of slogans from restive young fighting police batons and, by the end of the day, police vacating Jantar Mantar as the government and the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) tried for rapprochement.
It was an unprecedented Monday of highs and lows as thousands of young and angry people converged near Parliament on the first day of the Monsoon session to push for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, only to be pushed back by lathis and teargas shells.
“Chalo Sansad”. That was the rallying cry bringing together the young who transformed the leafy, high-security streets of central Delhi into extraordinary scenes of protests.
Carrying placards and the tricolour, shouting slogans, such as “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”, “Jai Bhim, “Vande Mataram” and “Dharmendra Pradhan Istifa Do”, many just sat where they were stopped, the protests mushrooming in multiple places across the city.
The crowd included schoolchildren, college students, parents and senior citizens. Some came in uniforms, while others wore cockroach costumes.
As the Delhi Police cracked down on the protesters, the CJP alleged brutality and accused the security personnel of using excessive force against protesters during its “Sansad Chalo” march, alleging that several students were injured and Sonam Wangchuk’s wife, Gitanjali J Angmo, was pushed around.
Police, however, denied the allegation that Angmo was assaulted as “completely false and misleading”. They claimed that “no individuals were subjected to targeted assault”.
CJP spokesperson Saurav Das alleged that pellet gun was used on the protesters and shared a video of a man allegedly injured by pellets, with several small injury marks visible on his face, neck and chest. The Delhi Police has not commented on the allegations yet.
In a statement, police accused the protesters of attacking security personnel with stones and other objects, attempting to breach barricades and vandalising government property.
They claimed that more than 118 police personnel sustained injuries, while the number of injured protesters was 60.
The CJP, an organic movement against paper leaks and alleged irregularities in the examination system that started with a comment from Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, referring to youngsters as “cockroaches”, has been sitting at Jantar Mantar since June 20. The protest gathered traction as Wangchuk and a group of students from the Left-affiliated AISA joined the hunger strike.
Three students — Neha, Manish and Ameen — who were on fast since June 28 along with Wangchuk, broke their hunger strike on the 23rd day on Monday.
Exactly a month after it started, Police attempted to get the site vacated.
Undeterred by rain, the protesters gathered where they could — in the bylanes around Jantar Mantar, in Connaught Place’s Central Park and outside metro stations.
There were also reports of vandalism. Videos showed stones on the road at Connaught Place and crowds damaging parked vehicles.
The protest, which took an ugly and violent turn, will continue peacefully, the CJP said in a statement.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, who took up the fast after Wangchuk was forcibly removed from Jantar Mantar after 21 days of forgoing food, was also picked up from the place.
Dipke and others, including Angmo, moved to Kerala House close by. Later, they moved back to the protest stage, which remained intact even as the tents put up by the protesters at the venue were dismantled. The electricity connection to the area was also disrupted, the protesters said.
“Despite the police brutality, the brave protestors of CJP are back at Jantar Mantar. Delhi, come out and join us at Jantar Mantar — this is now or never! Dharmendra Pradhan Must Resign!” the movement said in a post on X.
Earlier in the day, a two-member CJP delegation met Union Health Minister J P Nadda in an effort to resolve the escalating crisis.
The CJP said Nadda has assured them that he would hold internal talks and requested for time to align with the government leadership on the CJP’s demands — the immediate release of Wangchuk, Pradhan’s resignation and Rs 1 crore compensation each for the NEET aspirants who have committed suicide.
Nadda, in a post on X, said the proposal for talks came from the protesters, while the CJP said the government reached out to them.
“This morning, for the first time, a proposal came from the protesters to hold talks with the government, and our discussions have been ongoing since 11:50 am. The meeting took place in a cordial atmosphere. I have requested all the protesters to end their sit-in and assist the administration in restoring normalcy,” Nadda said.
Official sources said talks within the government on the CJP protest are underway.
A closed-door meeting was held in Home Minister Amit Shah’s room in the Parliament building, which was attended by Pradhan, Nadda, Piyush Goyal, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Nabin and some other senior leaders of the ruling party, the sources said.
While there was no official word on what transpired at the meeting, many said it showed the seriousness of the situation.
The issue found echo in Parliament and in political discourse.
Both houses of Parliament, meeting for the first time since the protests began, were adjourned repeatedly amid an uproar by opposition members over the issue. As the protesters thronged the roads leading to Parliament, the gates of the complex were also briefly shut.
Several leaders spoke out.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi dubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the “most anti-youth” prime minister in the country’s history as he accused the government of not just failing youngsters, but also pouncing on them.
“Prime Minister Modi is so ‘anti-youth’ that he can’t even take the resignation of a failed Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. 152 paper leaks. 7.5 crore students victimised. And not a single guilty person punished. Who got the punishment? The hardworking youth,” Gandhi said in a post on X.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal also slammed the Modi government for using force against the protestors, demanding that the Centre listen to the youngsters and not order a lathicharge on them.
AAP leaders Atishi and Manish Sisodia, CPI(M)’s M A Baby and Brinda Karat as well as Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Dimple Yadav were among those who joined the protest at Parliament Street.
“We are here to hold a peaceful protest. This is a right guaranteed by our Constitution. Mahatma Gandhi taught us the path of non-violence. We have no intention of resorting to violence,” actor Shabana Azmi told PTI Videos during the march.
Away from celeb and politician speak, the youngsters, some of whom had come from other states, gave vent to their angst.
Anshika, 17, lied to her family members, telling them that she was going to school but headed to join the march to Parliament. She tried to climb over barricades and was pulled down by women police personnel.
“We did not lie to our families and come here to be picked up and detained like criminals,” Anshika said, showing bruises on her hand.
“At the time of elections, they come to our homes and ask for votes. But they did not even come to engage in a dialogue over the NEET paper leak,” she said.
Women from several states, including Bihar, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, joined in too.
“We all travelled together from Pune in an overnight bus. We got in touch with each other through a WhatsApp group and decided where we would meet after reaching Delhi,” said 27-year-old Purva.
The anger was palpable.
A protester from Maharashtra, who said he had travelled to Delhi solely to participate in the demonstration, described education as the foundation of a country’s development and alleged that the system would deteriorate if quality education is not ensured.
A government job aspirant from Bihar said the protesters had gathered peacefully to make their voices heard and seek answers from the authorities. He said many young people had spent years preparing for competitive examinations and deserved transparency and accountability.
If many came to Delhi, many more gathered at their hometowns. Similar agitations were seen in cities, including Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Lucknow, where scores gathered to express their support for the CJP.
In Delhi, life was disrupted till late in the evening.
Though large parts of central Delhi were gridlocked as the protests gathered pace and security personnel swarmed the streets, the ripple effects were seen all over.
Several commuters were stranded inside nearby metro stations after access was restricted and station gates were closed as a precautionary measure. PTI AO BM SHB SGV AHD BUN MIN RC
(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)
