The official said one of the immediate challenges for authorities was the crowd that was not waiting for any leader or personality to lead them.
| Photo Credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap
Though the Union government succeeded in preventing protesters seeking Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation from converging at Jantar Mantar on Saturday (October 10, 2026) through large-scale deployment of security forces, its next challenge appeared to be stopping the largely “leaderless” crowd from regrouping in the coming days.
After a hearing in the Supreme Court on Friday (October 9, 2026) regarding the restrictions in Delhi, the government had contemplated offering Ramlila Maidan as an alternative protest site to the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) organisers, officials claimed. But, they said, neither the CJP nor the Left youth groups taking part in the agitation requested this.
Pellet guns, which had injured at least four people on July 20 during the protest demanding the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as Union Education Minister, leading to one of them losing vision in an eye, were withdrawn from the anti-riot gear of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) for Saturday’s protest. However, some Border Security Force (BSF) personnel were seen carrying a submachine gun.
Security dilemma
Government officials told The Hindu that mobilising security arrangements to the scale seen on Saturday (October 10) would not be feasible in the coming days, and that keeping protesters under detention for more than 24 hours would not be legal.
The Connaught Place block, one of the busiest commercial establishments in the country, which was shut on Saturday (October 10) at the request of the police, cannot be blocked off indefinitely, officials said. Each radial leading to Jantar Mantar was blocked with barricades, and 20-30 armed police and security force personnel were deployed at each location.
“Such kind of resources may not be available indefinitely. It is impossible to keep the entire area blocked for consecutive days,” said one official.
Officials contended that a visible security presence may continue in the area in the coming days, but the issue required a political solution and could not be treated as a mere “law-and-order” situation.
“Learning from the July 20 protest called by the CJP, several precautions were taken this time. Though a section of the crowd was apolitical, there was a considerable presence of cadres of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Left groups, and there was an anticipation that violence could take place,” said another government official.
Major challenge
The official said one of the immediate challenges for authorities was the crowd that was not waiting for any leader or personality to lead them. The detention of CJP leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das by the police as soon as their Air India flight landed at the Delhi airport on Saturday morning did not have much of an impact on the ground.
Khushboo, a law student from Pitampura in West Delhi, who had walked miles and hopped between the Metro, autorickshaw and bus to reach Connaught Place on Saturday, said, “It is not necessary that we have a leader. We know the purpose for which we are here. Even the British put people in jail. If you (the government) are worried about our security, then you should provide it to us and not try to cage us. We told the police that we are going to buy books.”
On October 9, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs directed all States and Union Territories to coordinate with the Delhi Police and take preventive measures to stop the movement of protesters towards Delhi. In a communication, Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan drew attention to what he called the “grave law and order and public order implications” arising from the protest.
Published – October 10, 2026 09:32 pm IST
