Jantar Mantar is no longer a protest site: How Delhi’s famous protest ground changed. Read to know
Delhi Police has removed Jantar Mantar from its list of designated protest sites. The order, dated October 11 and signed by Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar, names Ramlila Ground, Burari Ground and CBD Ground in East Delhi as the new venues. For about three decades, this strip near Parliament was where India’s anger got heard.
How it became the capital’s protest ground
It wasn’t always this way. Protests were earlier held at the Boat Club lawns near India Gate, where lakhs of farmers led by Mahendra Singh Tikait gathered in 1988. After the government banned gatherings there, Jantar Mantar became the main protest stretch in 1993. The area was small, but it had only two entry and exit points, so police could manage it easily.
Then came the big moments: Anna Hazare’s 2011 fast, the Tamil Nadu farmers in 2017, the CAA protests and the 2023 wrestlers’ sit-in. The Supreme Court refused to ban the site in 2018, despite noise complaints.
What changed this year
The site has been busy since June. Student protests there ended with Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, after a 23-day hunger strike by AISA activists including Neha Bora. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a satirical group founded by Abhijeet Dipke, helped drive that movement.
Now the target is Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Protesters accuse the poll body of manipulating voter lists to help the BJP, in the controversial revision of electoral rolls. The BJP and the Election Commission deny this.
Bora, AISA’s national president, has become the face of the street protests. She escaped a police van in front of TV cameras. After police blocked marchers, she told them “Dilli Haat becomes Jantar Mantar today.”
Rahul Gandhi has taken the fight to the capital’s roads. On October 6, he joined an opposition march from Parliament to the Election Commission headquarters, where several MPs were briefly detained. He then called an INDIA bloc march to the Supreme Court for Monday, October 12.
The arrests
On Tuesday, CJP leaders Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das and Ajinkya Shinde were among about 20 volunteers detained after jumping barricades to enter Jantar Mantar. Das and Ranka were sent to jail for five days. Gandhi called the arrests “an act of cowardice.”
What next?
The new venues bring their own problems: booking costs, limited availability at Ramlila Maidan, and distance from central Delhi. A detailed SOP for the three sites will be issued separately.