On Sunday (July 19, 2026) afternoon, thousands of people were flowing through both entries to the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest site at Jantar Mantar in central Delhi. With thousands of people inside the protest area, it was almost impossible to walk without bumping into another person.
The crowd has seen a dramatic increase compared to the initial days of the protest, which started on June 20.
People who have been at the site for many days said that there has been a marked increase in the crowd after police forcefully removed activist Sonam Wangchuk from the protest site on Saturday (July 18, 2026) morning.
At any given time, there was a queue of people trying to enter the protest site at both entries. Once you enter, at multiple points, protestors doubled up as crowd managers, while some volunteers fanned for other people and other volunteers sprayed water from handheld sprays as people moved through queues.
Standing next to a table filled with medicines and masks, Abhishek Saha, an Ayurvedic doctor from Rohini in north Delhi, was busy giving ORS packets, tablets, and band-aids to people coming in with various issues at regular intervals.
“It was started by another doctor, who was from Maharashtra, and now I’m looking after it. People have donated all the medicines,” Mr. Saha said, adding that he was expressing his solidarity for a better education system.
The table acts as a makeshift clinic for the people visiting the protest and many living there for many days now.
There was heavy deployment of Rapido Action Force, Nagaland Armed Force and Delhi Police personnel. At least 10-11 buses were seen near both entry points. Crossing multiple layers of barricades protestors found themselves in a sea of people, with AISA, SFI, and other student organisation camps where students on hunger strike rested amid heat and humidity. Volunteers of Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS) fanned the protesters who were seated, listening to the leaders on the dias. Several groups sang songs and raised placards demanding resignation of the Education Minister.
Pawan Kumar, 28, from Uttar Pradesh, and Shambu Dayal Meena, 31, from Rajasthan, said that they met at the protest site and have been fasting for the past six days.
“There is a lot of anger against the current government. They don’t respect the Constitution,” Mr. Meena, a tribal, said. “When the CJI said cockroaches, it felt bad because it felt like he was talking about me. I had been unemployed in the past,” he said.
Sitting next to them, Janeshwar, 32, said, referring to the trio, “Here, a Dalit, a tribal, and an OBC person are sitting together and protesting. Why? Because the government has closed down thousands of schools and it is our children that suffer. Not the children of the rich.”
Ravi, a student from Rai Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, said his brother had appeared for NEET this year. “Students work hard and give their everything to government exams only to realise they have been leaked. I cannot even imagine the state of parents who lost their children to these scams,” he said.
“ I am glad that so many people have turned up today,” said 60-year-old Vinod Kumar Mehra, a social worker from Gurgaon. “For the youth who want to change the country, hunger strike is the only option to express their rage and that is what they are doing,” he said.
People turned up not just to demand the resignation of the Union Education Minister. “It is a platform for us to express our discontentment with the government,” said Priya (name changed), an IT professional from Gurgaon.
“From something as basic as waterlogged conditions during the monsoon to embezzlement of donations at the Ram Temple at Ayodhya, how much and for how long are we supposed to suffer?” she added.
Published – July 20, 2026 02:23 am IST
Leave a Reply