Before dawn broke in New Delhi on Saturday (October 10, 2026), tension was palpable at Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station as porters and taxi drivers hunted for work, acutely aware of the work they would lose later in the day after the government cancelled dozens of trains. But at rest stops and parking lots, the workers had one eye on their smartphones as the whispers went around — “the public has awakened now”, “looks like the police are preparing to beat up protesters”, and “all eyes are now on Jantar Mantar”.
Spirited individuals
Geetika, a 25-year-old software engineer, quietly left her Faridabad home before 5 a.m., careful not to wake her mother, and booked a cab to Jantar Mantar; 63-year-old Shaheena and her 36-year-old daughter Sabika Muzaffar drove from their Gurugram home, with a hand-made poster concealed in a black map-holder; and students from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) found a way out of the campus in the dead of the night, notebooks in hand to mask themselves amongst the gaggle of journalists and press-persons they knew would gather outside the Jantar Mantar protest site.
Ruma Saikia, who travelled to Delhi from Assam, had been trying to reach Jantar Mantar since 6 a.m. but could not, even as citizens like 19-year-old college student Jiya spent the night in a car with her mother at the parking lot outside the Bangla Sahib Gurudwara, hoping to demonstrate on Saturday (October 10) morning.
Even as armed Border Security Force (BSF) arrived at the Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station before sunup to monitor exiting passengers, the Delhi Police was fortifying the entirety of New Delhi, especially the designated protest site in the heart of the national capital to prevent ‘Jantar Mantar 2.0’, a protest called by youth organisations, seeking Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over alleged special intensive revision (SIR)-linked vote theft.
By 9 a.m. Geetika, Shaheena, and Sabika had been detained and put on buses, some after holding a poster for 15 minutes, while others after they started speaking to the press about why they thought they needed to be there.
Sporadic in the morning
While the Delhi Police’s deployment of security personnel across the city made citizens like Geetika feel the need to protest more intensely, sporadic acts of protest in the early morning hours of Saturday (October 10), wherever they found themselves, by unfurling their posters, raising slogans, and courting detentions by simply smiling their way into buses set the tone for how the day played out across several parts of Delhi.
As news of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Abhijit Dipke, Saurav Das, and Ashutosh Ranka’s detention spread, the Delhi Police had managed to prevent any protester from entering the Jantar Mantar protest site throughout Saturday (October 10), but the protesters themselves had started dispersing and demonstrating wherever they could, for however long they could, and in some cases, just for seconds before they were detained by the police.
Even as these demonstrations started spreading, senior Delhi Police personnel were seen holding large debriefing sessions with security personnel on how to handle protesters at locations like the Jantar Mantar Road-Ashoka Road roundabout and the Windsor Place circle. The security personnel listened intently, with tear gas munitions hanging from their shoulders and drones flying above their heads as senior officers explained that using force should be the “last resort”.
Noted economist, social scientist, and activist Jean Dreze had stationed himself at one entrance to the protest site with a group of JNU students associated with the Left-affiliated Students’ Federation of India (SFI) from 7.30 a.m., before the group suddenly unfurled protest banners hours later in front of security personnel and was taken away. The banners called for CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation and the scrapping of the ECI-conducted SIR exercise.
Intense confrontations
Simultaneously, a group of SFI student leaders, led by former JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh, started a march calling for the CEC’s resignation two kilometres away at Gol Dak Khana Roundabout, before being chased and dragged away by security forces, only for protesters following them to either run into the nearby Bangla Sahib Gurudwara for shelter or into nearby streets for a break before regrouping.
Protesters had arrived by walking for kilometres, taking public transport, and hitch-hiking, protecting themselves with shin guards and elbow guards under their clothes, even as a section of the agitators egged the security forces on so they could be detained on buses and shout slogans calling for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resignation through the bus windows. Slogans that echoed through this stretch of Ashoka Road from time to time included ‘Tanashahi nahi chalegi’, ‘SIR radd karo’ and ‘Gyanesh Kumar istifa do’.
Some protesters, even as they were being taken into custody, urged the police to allow them a few moments to record videos or speak to the media. A few asked journalists to record their messages before they were escorted to the detention vehicles.
Cat-and-mouse chase
The standoff repeatedly spilled onto the street as protesters emerged from the gurdwara with banners and placards, attempting to resume their demonstration. The police moved in almost immediately, detaining several people and loading them into private buses being used as detention vehicles. Additional personnel, including RAF and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) units, were deployed along the stretch as the confrontation continued.
The scene soon turned into a cat-and-mouse chase, with young protesters regrouping on the streets before retreating into the gurdwara to evade detention. Each time a group emerged to raise slogans or attempt a brief march, police personnel chased them down and detained several demonstrators.
By late afternoon, the playbook of dispersing protesters and demonstrations wherever one was gathered had spread. All India Students’ Association (AISA) leader Neha Bora had emerged with activists, including Yogendra Yadav and senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, to lead a march to Jantar Mantar from the AIIMS area, where Ms. Bora’s detention led to further sporadic protests on the Safdarjung flyover, even as more agitators were seen gathering at locations such as the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg and around Connaught Place, with reports of police using force emerging as well.
Published – October 10, 2026 10:01 pm IST
