New Delhi: Nikhil didn’t sleep the entire night of 9 October. He was figuring out the route to reach Jantar Mantar the next day for the ‘Save Democracy’ protest called by the Cockroach Janta Party to demand the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
This was his second time at the protest site. Last time, he had stayed at Jantar Mantar for a month and a half, demanding the resignation of the then Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in June and July over the NEET-UG 2026 examination paper leak. The protesters raised questions about the integrity of the medical entrance test and triggered demands for accountability from the education ministry.
Throughout the night, Nikhil scoured the internet, even used the AI app to map out the routes which he could take to Jantar Mantar.
But it has all come to nothing because the police, along with CAPF and CRPF, have tightly secured the protest site and the adjoining areas.
“Last time, it was very lenient. This time it feels scary. I am still figuring out how to reach the protest site,” Nikhil told ThePrint.
At the previous protest, reaching the site had been relatively easy, Nikhil said. This time, police appeared far more prepared, with layers of barricades and a heavy security presence keeping protesters at a distance. As those who had come to demonstrate struggled to find a way in, many were beginning to realise how much the conditions for protest had changed.
The heavy security deployment and restrictions on movement across Delhi have renewed questions about the space available for dissent in the capital. With protesters kept away from the designated site, the gathering near the barricades became a point of confrontation over where citizens can assemble and voice their concerns.
Among those standing near the barricades was veteran Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Nivedita Menon, who described New Delhi as being under siege.
“This is a war against people. This is a terrified state waging war against people. If you are reduced to doing this, we have already won,” she said.
Menon also called for protesters to be allowed to gather at India Gate and the Boat Club, places historically associated with public demonstrations. Her argument was that the right to protest should not be confined to a site designated by the authorities.
“They can give us back India Gate and Boat Club. Every spot in the city is ours. Who are they to decide where we will protest and how we will protest? Today it’s against this government, tomorrow it may be another government and the day after maybe against us. The protest and speech are the heart of democracy, and if they’re taking away Jantar Mantar, we want India Gate back,” she said.
Also read: 6.4 million likes to 1.25 lakh comments—Dhruv Rathee’s India return goes viral
‘State of country woke me up’
Nikhil took a cab from Vasant Kunj to Bangla Sahib, from where he walked on foot across the entire outer circle to Connaught Place to reach Janpath Road, only to find three layers of barricades and thousands of personnel blocking his way.
“I am still very new to protesting,” he said.
The farm protests, followed by CJP protests, have turned Nikhil from an apolitical person to someone who is not afraid of coming and asserting his rights.
“I used to call myself apolitical for the longest time. But in the last two to three years, the state of the country has woken me up,” he smiles as he continues his journey to the protest site while figuring out his way.
However, Nikhil was not the only one who had turned up at Jantar Mantar despite the restrictions. As police barricades and heavy deployment kept protesters from reaching the designated site, others who had come to join the demonstration found themselves watching from the sidelines as the police stopped people from making their way through.
Protesters gathered near the barricades as loudspeakers blared repeated police announcements asking them to stay put. A young man shouted back: “We are here to protest peacefully.”
Abhishek, a fourth-year engineering student in Delhi who hails from Patna, said he had once seen the capital as a place where people from across the country could gather at India Gate to raise their concerns. The restrictions around the CJP protest, he added, had given him a different view of the city.
“I was not going to come to the protest, but the extent of the clampdown made me come and see the extent to which our democracy has crumbled,” Abhishek told ThePrint.
His classmate Adinath, who is from Maharashtra, was attending his first protest.
“I couldn’t come to the past protests, but this time things are even more serious. So I thought it was necessary for me to join,” he said.
Protesters gathered in small groups near the barricades as police announcements blared from loudspeakers, repeatedly asking them to stay put. Some watched from a distance as others tried to make their way past the barricades, only to be stopped by security personnel. Amid the heavy deployment, protesters shouted that they had come to demonstrate peacefully, even as police moved in to detain some of those attempting to reach the site.
‘Why are individual protesters being picked up?’
Zainab had come from Bihar to attend her cousin’s wedding in Delhi. But on the morning of 10 October, she was at the protest site, watching as she saw individual protesters being picked up as they tried to cross the barricades and reach the protest site.
“Why are they picking up individual protesters? There has not been a gathering. They just want to peacefully protest,” said Zainab.
Zainab’s reason to attend the protest was not only the resignation of Kumar but also concern about women’s safety in India. Her will to attend the protest grew stronger two days after she was even teased at the New Delhi railway station.
“This is the environment in our capital. We keep comparing ourselves to our neighbours in P and B, but we never turn our attention to our own problems and solve them,” she said.
As of now, no clashes or other untoward incidents have been reported at the site.
According to police sources, at least 200 protesters have been detained in New Delhi early Saturday. Drones have been deployed to track the movement of people trying to reach the protest site, they added.
The sources added that police were monitoring individuals suspected of having the ability to mobilise crowds or encourage others to join the protest.
Meanwhile, the police said they had refused permission for the CJP and several other student organisations to hold a protest on 10 October, a senior police officer said on 9 October.
At a press conference, Joint Commissioner of Police for the New Delhi range, Nupur Prasad, said the permission was denied because the organisers submitted their application late and had allegedly violated rules during an earlier CJP protest.
“According to the prescribed procedure, the intimation has to be given 10 days prior to a protest,” she said, adding that when the CJP was given permission to hold a protest on an earlier occasion, it did not follow the lawful directions or its own undertakings.
The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) had called the 10 October protest at Jantar Mantar to demand Kumar’s resignation over alleged irregularities in electoral rolls. Delhi Police denied permission for the demonstration and imposed sweeping restrictions ahead of it, including barricading roads and restricting access to parts of central Delhi. The authorities also announced traffic diversions, closure of the metro as well as trains and temporary mobile internet restrictions near the protest site.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and party leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were detained early after their flight from Mumbai landed at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, who planned to join the protest, was also detained at his Gurugram residence.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)