The food items ranged from pizzas, burgers, momos, to thaalis.
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Outside the layers of barricades of the Jantar Mantar protest site of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), at the intersection of Tolstoy Marg and Sansad Marg, Aayu Jacob, 18, stopped his blue-coloured motorcycle for the 20th time since Tuesday (July 21, 2026) morning.
“Since morning, I have done 20 rounds here to deliver pizzas. Out of that, four orders were from the U.S. Other delivery agents from our restaurant are also coming here,” Mr. Jacob said.
Every few minutes, a new delivery person stopped at the intersection to deliver food to the protest site, but to no particular person.
The food was being ordered by hundreds of people across the country, with the location as Jantar Mantar protest site and instructions to give the food to the protestors. The food items ranged from pizzas, burgers, momos, to thaalis.
Mr. Jacob said that one of the orders they got on Tuesday to deliver at the site was a single order of 80 pizzas. “Even our manager came to deliver here today, because there were too many orders and we could not manage it,” he said, adding that a few people asked to send a photo or video as proof.
Every few minutes, a new delivery person stopped at the intersection to deliver food to the protest site, but to no particular person.
| Photo Credit:
Special arrangement
Meanwhile, a person took the delivery and promised to give the pizzas to people at the protest site, and talked to the person who ordered it, via Mr. Jacob’s phone, “You are doing a good job. You are from Bihar? My friend is also from Bihar, talk to him.”
The person who ordered told The Hindu that though he was from Bihar, he was currently studying nursing in Bangalore. “I had also written NEET in the past and then also the question paper got leaked. I later gave it up and took up nursing. I can’t come there now, but I wanted to show support to the students protesting and that is why I ordered pizzas,” the person said over the phone.
Govind, 24, who came on his bike to deliver food, said that he has made 18 trips so far. “The orders ranged from 10 cups of chai to 34 burgers to 200 samosas. I send photos to some people of the food being distributed,” he said.
Mr. Govind, who goes by only first name, said that some people had asked to deliver the food inside the protest site. “I got only 20 rupees for that order, but it took one hour to deliver the food inside and come back. But I still did it. I felt happy to distribute food inside for the students. I also have two children and these people are protesting for the right cause,” he said.
Shahroz Akbar, 42, who stopped to deliver his sixth order, gave the momos to a person at the area, who promised to distribute it. The delivery instruction on the food delivery app on his phone read, “Please offer this to anyone at the jantar mantar protest site.”
Mr. Akbar showed on his phone that there is another delivery he has just got to the protest site itself. Another delivery agent next to him stopped with a delivery of burgers a person had ordered from abroad.
Ayush Rai, a volunteer at the protest site, said that he and his brother have been bringing food from the intersection to the protest site for hours and now there are not many takers.
With so many people ordering food online and many more individuals bringing food physically to the protest site with them, even distributing it was becoming difficult by 10 p.m.
This forced the CJP to post on social media at night asking people not to order any more food online to the protest site. “India is such a beautiful country with such beautiful people – thanks for sending food for protesters. We are so overwhelmed. BUT for today, we have received more than enough food – please don’t send any more!” CJP official handle posted on X at 10:55 p.m.
Published – July 22, 2026 07:28 am IST
