A Night at Jantar Mantar: Cockroaches Refused to Leave, Govt Refused to Escalate

The Cockroach Janta Party has escalated matters. The government refuses to. Who will blink first?

(Original click: Deeksha Sinha/ The Quint)

At about 4:15 pm on Saturday, 20 June, about three hours after the second demonstration of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) began in Delhi, Abhijeet Dipke made an unprecedented announcement.

"This protest will go on for as long as it takes. Nobody will move till Dharmendra Pradhan resigns. Doesn't matter if we get arrested or detained. If we have to face laathis, I will take the first one," he said as the crowd cheered and banged steel plates.

For about three hours before this announcement, the protest looked like any other the CJP has been organising across various cities for the past two weeks. The media presence was leaner compared to the first demonstration in Delhi on 6 June, and so was the turnout. Many familiar faces showed up for the second time.

But by declaring an indefinite sit-in and refusing to leave until Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned, CJP leader Abhijeet Dipke raised the stakes – something many supporters and observers had argued the movement needed to do.

(Photo: Deeksha Sinha/The Quint)

By the end of Saturday, the question at Jantar Mantar was no longer whether how successful this round of protest by the CJP was, but whether it has what it takes to really force a response from the government.

While one expected the situation to escalate into the usual cycle of use of force and detentions, what followed after 5:00 pm was a carefully managed standoff that stretched late into the night, which yet again exposed the limits of the CJP's mobilisation and the administration's reluctance to turn the protest into a bigger spectacle than it already is.

As the evening progressed and the crowds began to thin, the question remained the same: would the CJP's biggest gamble yet be enough to force the government's hand?

Both Sides Came Prepared

The first indication that the 20 June demonstration would be more organised than the previous one came at the entrance to Jantar Mantar itself.

A scanning machine had been installed and attendees were being asked to show identification before entering. Near the main stage, a separate enclosure had been set up for media personnel. Throughout the day, volunteers moved through the crowd distributing water and snacks.

The Delhi Police, too, appeared to have come prepared. Photographers and videographers in plain clothes blended into the gathering, their presence noticeably greater than on 6 June. Several police buses remained parked near the protest site – vehicles that Dipke repeatedly joked had been brought to detain protesters.

(Photo: Deeksha Sinha/The Quint)

The theme of the day was the 'thaali'. A day before the demonstration, Dipke had called upon supporters to bring plates and utensils to bang, a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"During the COVID-19 pandemic, a new kind of science was invented. They said bang thaalis so that the virus goes away. Let's bang thaalis now so that Pradhan goes away," Dipke said from the stage, prompting loud cheers and a chorus of steel plates striking the ground.

Like the 6 June protest, the crowd largely comprised student activists, volunteers, content creators, media personnel, and members of student organisations such as like Students' Federation of India (SFI) and All India Students' Association (AISA)

Yet the gathering was not entirely without ordinary supporters — a father who sacrificed expensive cancer treatments for himself to pay for his son's NEET coaching, a 76-year-old Gandhian had travelled alone from Mumbai to express solidarity, a Gen X teacher arrived carrying food and water for hundreds of protesters, a cancer patient from Odisha sat through the demonstration with her 13-year-old son.

For much of the afternoon, there was little to suggest the day would unfold differently from the demonstrations the CJP had been organising over the previous two weeks. The movement had consistently stressed that it would remain within the bounds of the law. Dipke's announcement of an indefinite sit-in changed the air.

A Calculated Tug of War

When Dipke declared the extension of the protest, he called upon CJP supporters and students in other cities, as well as parents, teachers, and students from across Delhi, to reach Jantar Mantar by 6 pm.

"I am appealing to all the cockroaches, and parents and teachers from Delhi to come and join us at Jantar Mantar. We will stay put for as long as we can, but we will not be able to pull this off unless we have your support," Dipke said.

Closer to 5:00 pm, the first signs of pushback began to emerge. Police personnel repeatedly announced that protesters would have to vacate the premises. CJP volunteers and supporters, meanwhile, moved closer to the main stage, forming a tighter circle around Dipke as he continued appealing to the police to extend permission for the sit-in.

(Photo: Deeksha Sinha/The Quint)

"I am asking all the policemen this – don't take away our right to protest. Are we doing anything illegal? Give us another protest site if you wish, we are ready to move there peacefully. We will not break the law. And if anybody breaks the law, I will not be seen with them. But you tell me – 12 students have committed suicide in the past two weeks. Does Dharmendra Pradhan deserve to remain in power?" Dipke said.

CJP spokesperson Saurav Das, meanwhile, held several rounds of discussions with police officials. By 6:00 pm, electricity connections to the protest site had been suspended and protesters alleged that the entry of food and water had also been blocked.

By then, most of the ordinary protesters had already left. Dipke's call for Delhiites to join the demonstration failed to surge the numbers. On the contrary, they only dwindled.

Taking the microphone once again, Dipke directly appealed to the police personnel present.

"Sir, I appeal to you to let water be allowed inside at least. Would you block access to water if these were your children?"

Soon after, a notice declaring the protest illegal was put up by the Delhi Police.

By 7:30 pm, repeated attempts by CJP leaders to secure permission for an extended sit-in had failed.

"We have also told the police to open communication channels with the government so that at least a delegation from our side could go and meet a senior minister and put forward our demands. However, the government has become totally deaf, dumb, and blind to the demands of the youth," Das told The Quint.

(Photo: Deeksha Sinha/The Quint)

By 9:00 pm, around 100 protesters and several media personnel remained at the site, still waiting to see whether the demonstration would be forcibly ended. The crowd had shrunk further, comprising a handful of CJP volunteers, members of student organisations like SFI, AISA, Jawaharlal Nehru University Student's Union (JNUSU), and media personnel.

Yet, conversations with police personnel through the evening suggested that the use of force was unlikely. After several hours, electricity was restored. Access to food and water resumed. The movement of media personnel and members of the public in and out of the site also became largely unrestricted.

The police had not granted 'official' permission for the extension of the protest. At the same time, there appeared to be little inclination towards confrontation.

By midnight, those who remained were dancing to songs from 'Rang De Basanti'. By 1:30 am, Dipke asked those present to get some sleep, saying there was a "long struggle ahead".

Escalated Challenges

The CJP protest has entered a new phase. Dipke spent most of the early hours of 21 June appealing to supporters from other states to travel to Delhi and join the sit-in at Jantar Mantar.

The call reflects the challenge that the movement continues to face since 6 June – the translation of online outrage and engagement into a sustained physical presence on the ground.

For nearly two weeks, the BJP has largely avoided direct confrontation with the movement. Senior party leaders have mostly stayed away from the issue. RSS spokesperson Sunil Ambedkar has described the protesting youth as "patriotic", a story that was

There has also been little sign of the kind of aggressive political as well as online pushback that often accompanies movements perceived as a serious threat. The events at Jantar Mantar on 20 June appeared consistent with that approach.

(Photo: Deeksha Sinha/The Quint)

Even as the protest escalated beyond its scheduled duration, there is still little indication that the administration views the gathering as large enough to demand a significantly stronger response.

Critics of the CJP have long argued that the movement would have to raise the stakes if it hoped to force a political response. By declaring an indefinite sit-in in the national capital, it has attempted to do exactly that. Yet after several rounds of protests across cities, including two in Delhi, the question confronting the movement remains largely unchanged.

The conviction of those turning up at demonstrations cannot be denied. But to what extent can stakes be raised if on-ground mobilisation continues to remain a challenge?