A steady stream of food delivery workers carrying meals, snacks and bottled water is helping to sustain a youth-led protest movement that has emerged in the heart of India’s capital.
Motorcycles weave through traffic before stopping next to groups of volunteers, carrying donations from supporters across India and abroad who are unable to join in a rare show of public dissent against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
“From Kerala to the United States, orders are coming from everywhere,” said motorcyclist Suraj Kumar, 25, sitting atop his motorcycle with a bag of kachoris, a popular fried snack, as some volunteers climbed police barricades to receive the packages.
A volunteer took the package and passed it from hand to hand toward the center of the protest site, a few hundred meters away, around Delhi’s Jantar Mantar observatory, where hundreds of people gathered around a raised platform.
There, leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a movement that began as online satire in May, demanded the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over repeated exam leaks. They have been there since last month, but the protest gained momentum only in recent days after a prominent activist began an indefinite hunger strike in support.
The protest is based on the “goodness of the people,” says a student
The camp has survived despite a major police crackdown on Monday, when tens of thousands of people, mostly young people, tried to march on parliament. Indians under the age of 30 are estimated to make up more than half of the country’s 1.42 billion people, and many have long complained that years of strong economic growth have failed to create enough jobs.
“People are angry, especially after the police started beating innocent students. But not everyone can come here, so they send food,” said Raj Rathore, 25, a volunteer who has spent the last few days unloading and distributing deliveries that include bottles of water, fruit and cookies.
Those contributions, along with volunteer-led support networks, have helped keep the protest going around the clock, students said.
“This protest is taking place solely because of the kindness of the people and the fact that we are all united,” said Rina Rawat, a Delhi University student who was herding people into queues inside the protest site.
Rawat, 20, was hit with police batons on her left leg on Monday, but returned the next day to “do her duty,” she said.
Protest includes rare open criticism of Modi
Modi has not commented directly on the protests, although a minister said after a meeting of the ruling coalition that the prime minister had told them that “the strongest possible measures are being taken to protect the interests of the students.” Pradhan promised “answers, reforms and accountability.”
At the protest site, the number of protesters increased to 5,000 by late Wednesday afternoon despite intermittent monsoon rains. Most of them were Generation Z students carrying banners, singing patriotic Bollywood songs and chanting slogans.
“Modi, we will not tolerate your autocracy,” one protester shouted as the crowd cheered, a rare sight under a leader who has dominated Indian politics since taking power in 2014.
“I was a Modi supporter until 10 days ago,” said Mukesh, who declined to give his middle name. “But when I saw the police brutality, I was shocked.”
Young doctors and medical students provide first aid and medications.
Volunteers cleaned puddles and picked up trash, while others used handheld fans to keep protesters cool in the humidity.
A medical post staffed by volunteer doctors and medical students has been operating at the site for about a month. Volunteers said they have been especially busy over the past two days.
“We are providing first aid and medicine for dizziness and nausea,” said Bhavna, 23, who did not want to reveal her last name. “We have also suffered from paper leaks; the anxiety that that gives you is enormous.”
Many protesters were inspired by India’s independence movement, carrying portraits of revolutionary Bhagat Singh, holding copies of the Constitution and handing out roses. Others donned Spider-Man masks and held slogans describing themselves as “bad.”
Nearby, Arpita Verma, 19, said “there has been too much Hindu-Muslim politics in India,” referring to the sharper religious divisions under Modi’s party, which is supported primarily by the Hindu majority.
“But here we have no room for that; now we are united by a common cause and we are not afraid at all.”
