What Delhi witnessed on October 10 felt like an ‘undeclared emergency.’ A protest called by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) and Left student organisations, demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, seems to have rattled the government so much that it turned the city into a fortress. Every route to Jantar Mantar was sealed, as if for a military blockade at the border.
Reporting from the ground, it felt as though the administration was at war not only with the protesters but with the media. Mobile internet was blacked out across a four-kilometre radius in central Delhi to stop live broadcasts and keep the ground reality hidden from the nation. To make Jantar Mantar inaccessible, metro stations were shut and dozens of trains were cancelled, all to keep young people from joining.
