Sheet by sheet, stage that amplified students’ voices taken down

For 36 days, the makeshift stage at Jantar Mantar stood as the face of the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) agitation. It was a platform for speeches, slogans and solidarity. On Saturday, hours after the protest was called off, it began to disappear, sheet by sheet and banner by banner.

Once the protest’s prominent faces had bid farewell to the site, volunteers began dismantling the stage, removing the cloth backdrop, folding flags and placards, unplugging loudspeakers and packing away microphones.

Workers then loosened the ropes holding up the tarpaulin roof before taking apart the metal pipes and bamboo poles that formed the structure’s frame. Within hours, only a patch of flattened ground remained where thousands had gathered each day.

As the structure came down, emotions ran high among those who stayed back. A few people at the spot raised slogans of “Jai Bheem”. The shopkeepers who sold dosa and idli behind the stage also came to bid farewell to the structure.

Protest’s epicentre

For over a month, the makeshift stage had functioned as the protest’s command centre. It was from here that student leaders and members of the CJP addressed supporters, announced programmes, coordinated volunteers and led slogan-shouting that reverberated across Jantar Mantar. The platform also became the setting for hunger strikes, cultural performances and daily briefings.

This was not the first time the stage had come down. On March 20, after students marching towards Parliament were stopped by the police and later lathi-charged at Jantar Mantar, the structure was dismantled amid the crackdown, only to be rebuilt the same night as the protest resumed.

The stage also witnessed some of the movement’s defining moments. It was from here that the police detained climate activist Sonam Wangchuk before he was taken to Safdarjung Hospital. It also became a place where students, battling Delhi’s heat and humidity, fell ill and returned to continue the agitation.

By late night, Jantar Mantar had largely returned to its familiar appearance. Yet, the vacant patch where the stage had stood for 36 days carried the memory of speeches, songs, debates and slogans that shaped one of the capital’s longest student-led protests in recent months.

“The stage is gone, but what happened here will not be forgotten. This place gave us friendships that will last a lifetime. I met Govind from Lucknow here, and we have stood together at this protest for almost a month,” said Sooraj Gupta, a volunteer from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, as the last pole was loaded onto a truck.