Jantar Mantar Protesters Rebuild Stage After Police Crackdown, Continue Sit-In
A day after Delhi Police used tear gas and batons to disperse protesters and dismantled their stage at Jantar Mantar, the platform has been rebuilt. The makeshift structure, draped in hastily tied red cloth, now bears the scars of Monday's violence—a sagging canopy, bent metal frames, and pillows and mattresses strewn on the red carpeting.
At one end of the stage, portraits of climate activist Sonam Wangchuk and photographs of students who died by suicide following the NEET re-examination controversy have been placed. Several students sat cross-legged in front of these images, many nursing injuries from the crackdown. Injured protesters rested on a smaller platform opposite the main stage, while volunteers distributed water.
Loud chants of “Delhi Police, hai hai” echoed across the site. Large numbers of police personnel watched and periodically announced over loudspeakers asking protesters to stop raising slogans.
“The stage that we are sitting on right now was broken around 3:30 pm yesterday,” said Eeshna, Delhi in-charge of the Association of Students for Alternative Politics (ASAP), a student wing of the Aam Aadmi Party, who also volunteers with the activist platform Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leading the protest. “The forces came in and pushed the students. Many of them started running towards the stage and climbed over the barricades behind it. They broke the iron grill between the crowd and the stage.”
Volunteers worked through the night to repair the damage. “We set the stage back up again in the night,” Eeshna said. “We haven’t been able to sleep at all for days.” She added that the camp was critically low on basic supplies: “We have run out of water. There is absolutely no food. It would be of great help if someone comes forward and contributes.”
According to Eeshna, student organisations have divided responsibilities to keep the protest running. “ASAP is taking care of security, food and water. AISA (the Leftist student organisation All India Students’ Association) was on a hunger strike until yesterday. AISF has been mobilising people, and SFI is in charge of the library we have set up here.”
A smaller stage has been converted into a relief area for those injured during the police action. “We have asked the injured to come and rest here. We are providing them with first aid, food and water,” she said.
21-year-old Alzafur Mohammed, a second-year BCom student at Gauhati University, travelled from Assam to join the protest. His right foot was visibly swollen. “I came here two days ago to protest,” he said. “They don’t let us protest in our university. Everything is being controlled by the government.” He said he was injured while leaving Jantar Mantar on Monday: “The police hit me with a lathi. I am here for my future.”
18-year-old John, a government school student from Punjab, sat nearby with a white bandage around his head covering an injury from the police action. “I study PCM and I want to go abroad because I am afraid there is no future in this country,” he said. “But I still want to fight.” He said he has three sisters: “When they were studying, it was not this bad. This has all been happening since the BJP came to power.”
Many of those gathered on Tuesday had travelled from different states and returned to the protest site despite being caught in Monday’s clashes. Some walked with limps; others sat quietly under the rebuilt canopy.
