The Delhi Metro ran normally, Connaught Place shops stayed open, pro-government thugs were absent and protests were largely permitted, the administration offering a rare relaxation of its crackdown on the movement against chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The crowds of protesters that turned up for the Cockroach Janta Party’s Tiranga March on Friday were, however, smaller than those seen in the past fortnight.
Police detained CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke as soon as he stepped out, Tricolour in hand, from the Karol Bagh home of NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) spokesperson Anish Gawande shortly before 5pm. AISA president Neha Bora has also been detained.
Before being held, Dipke posted a message on X, saying: “Businesses do not suffer because of peaceful protests. They suffer when the govt decides to shut down an entire city, suspend internet services and restrict the movement of its own citizens and turn the city into a war-zone.”
By then, more than a 100 youths had arrived with placards and national flags at Connaught Place (CP), the retail district in the heart of the capital. Also in attendance were the Left parties.
Maimoona Mollah, Delhi vice-president of the CPM-backed All India Democratic Women’s Association, told The Telegraph that “on October 10, I witnessed more police brutality than I have ever seen”.
“I was made to sit on the pavement for hours and whenever I moved, four women constables pinned me down. I was lucky. They beat young boys and girls so badly in front of me,” she said, speaking outside the Rajiv Chowk Metro station.
“I objected and tried to make videos on my phone but the police deleted them. Today, I walked out of the Metro and the constable politely pointed me to the place of the protest and said, ‘Aap ja sakte hain, Madam’.”
Central Park, the venue for the gathering, was shut, though. Hundreds of police and central force personnel were stationed around the park and on the roads, many of them availing the festive discounts from the shops, but with an ear to the wireless set in case their bosses changed their minds.
Some shopkeepers at Palika Bazar, the underground market, staged a counter-demonstration, chanting “Modi! Modi!” but failing to drown out the slogans of the Leftist groups protesting just outside.
“We are open, but barely. Many hawkers have not come today,” Raj Kumar, the leader of the garment hawkers, said.
“Customers are scared to come, seeing so many police. This is the worst Navratri. You will see only police and reporters shopping here, with the hawkers giving discounts just to get rid of their stocks and go home. I blame the CJP,” he said, adding that Connaught Place “has been like this since the July protests”.
A large march led by CPM parliamentarians John Brittas, A.A. Rahim, V. Sivadasan and CPI Rajya Sabha member P. Sandosh Kumar, from the student and youth arms of both parties, was held in the evening in the inner circle of Connaught Place.
Several people unaffiliated to any group who had turned up at the CJP’s call walked around the area, bewildered at the police’s reluctance to go after them.
A young girl with an Indian flag wrapped around her loudly whispered to a young man beside her: “Shall we try to go to the park?”
The man refused, saying they would be arrested. “Chal na, try karte hain,” she insisted. The policemen standing near them just smiled, their lathis stacked harmlessly behind them.
The crowds swelled as night fell, with Tricolours fluttering. Hawkers turned up with flags for sale.
Jantar goal
The CPIML Liberation seemed prepared for the worst. To evade immediate detention, a march led by party general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya began at the theatre hub of Mandi House, 2km away.
The police shut the eateries in the area that are a favourite haunt for theatre folk as soon as Bhattacharya appeared. Journalists outnumbered the protesters and had pretty much blocked Bhattacharya’s path when the party’s student leader, Neha, made her entry with a trademark sprint.
“Gyanesh Kumar istifa do (resign),” she shouted. She could not get far.
As photographers slowed down the march, the police threw a cordon and detained Bhattacharya, Bora and others.
However, AISA Delhi University secretary Anjali and about 50 supporters managed to sprint away, heading towards Jantar Mantar, covering about 2km in 20 minutes before being stopped at a barricade on Janpath.
The INDIA bloc and supporting student groups like AISA have made the reclamation of Jantar Mantar Road, denotified as a protest site this week, one of their goals.
With the police not revealing the whereabouts of Dipke and Bora late into the night, the AISA, CJP, Brittas and former Tamil Nadu chief minister Stalin expressed alarm.