The gap between the police barricades and the swelling line of protesters became all too stark on Thursday with both sides zealously guarding their end of Sansad Marg. While thousands of protesters continued to occupy a stretch of the Sansad Marg – leading from Connaught Place to Tolstoy Marg – security forces and riot control vehicles stood guard at the rest of the arterial road leading to Parliament House.
Following minor clashes between the police and Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protesters the previous night, security was stepped up on Thursday and Internet was suspended around the area. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke told the media that “Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) goons” have infiltrated the protest and are engaging in stone-pelting. “People are being sent from outside to deliberately disrupt the protest. We have been sitting here for a month. No such incident has happened in a month. But now, as this protest has grown, goons are being sent from outside by the BJP to deliberately incite people and are pelting stones. The police bring trucks of stones here and then the BJP’s goons pelt these stones to defame the people of CJP.”
As thousands continued to gather at Jantar Mantar, CJP volunteers formed a human chain separating the protesters and the police. “They have been here since last night and throughout the day too. There has been no untoward incident so far today,” a police officer on duty said.
Regular cellular service was patchy at the protest site. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued orders since July 22 to suspend Internet services in and around a 1.5 km radius of Jantar Mantar. The latest order under The Telecommunications (Temporary Suspension of Services) Rules, 2024, was effective till 12 a.m., Thursday. The previous order, issued on July 22, blocked Internet in the area for 12 hours till 6 a.m. on Thursday. It was further suspended from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday and extended till 12 a.m. by invoking another order under the 2024 provision.
The groundswell
The crowd kept swelling through the day despite the authorities shutting down 16 metro stations and the police stopping students travelling in autorickshaws from reaching the protest site citing prohibitory orders.
Around 2.30 p.m. near Nizamuddin, the Delhi police set up two barricades and were stopping autorickshaws with young people going to the protest site about 5 km away.
“We are only stopping students who are going for the protest as ‘Section 144’ [now Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita] is in place. We are making them understand that they could get injured over there,” a police officer at Nizamuddin said, adding that they were not stopping other vehicles or people in autorickshaws going for other work.
A group of students who were removed from their autorickshaw said the police were not letting them walk towards Jantar Mantar either.
At Jantar Mantar, several people said they faced difficulties as the metro stations were shut. Simran Kaur, 21, a Delhi University student, and her friend got down at the New Delhi metro station and walked for about 3 km to reach the protest site. “Autos were not coming to this area and we had no other option,” she said.
Vishwamohini, 19, a BA History (Hons) student, said she took a bike taxi to reach the protest. “There were a lot of diversions and it took longer than usual and we had to walk the last bit.”
“Despite 16 metro stations being closed and students being stopped on their way to the protest site for the second consecutive day, thousands are still here. The actual size of the protest is much, much bigger as a lot of people are not able to reach here. The crowd you see here is only the tip of the iceberg,” said N. Sai Balaji, former All India Students’ Association national president, who has been at the protest site since the stir began on June 20.
Published – July 24, 2026 01:42 am IST
