Wangchuk and CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke have received support from most of the major opposition parties, farmer leaders, activist and celebrities, including Bollywood actors.
The government did not engage with the demonstrators until Monday when Health Minister JP Nadda met some CJP leaders to hear their demands.
The meeting took place against the backdrop of tens of thousands of people turning up from all over the country to participate in the CJP’s call to march to parliament on the opening day of the monsoon session.
Nadda, who is also a senior leader of the ruling BJP, said: “The meeting took place in a cordial atmosphere. I have requested all the protesters to end their sit-in and assist the administration in restoring normalcy.”
CJP spokesperson Saurav Das said the group’s 10-minute meeting with Nadda ended with a promise that the government would look into the matter, but no concrete assurances. Another CJP leader, Ashutosh Ranka, dismissed the four-hour wait for the meeting as “a waste of time”.
At one point on Monday evening, it seemed like that the CJP might be willing to call off their protest following their meeting.
But their stance appeared to harden after internet services – apparently blocked in the area throughout the day – were restored, revealing the scale of the violence.
During the day, I saw protesters bring injured people to Jantar Mantar, including a young man bleeding heavily from a head wound as volunteer doctors bandaged him, and another student with a broken leg.
Around the time the protesters were meeting Nadda, police and paramilitary forces moved in to clear Jantar Mantar. Among them were plainclothes officers, many with their faces covered, who joined uniformed police in chasing protesters and beating them with sticks.
An announcement repeatedly made on a loudspeakers warned the protesters to “leave now, this protest is over”.
