New Delhi: On Saturday morning, Tolstoy Marg echoed with little more than Delhi Police loudspeakers warning people against violating prohibitory orders under Section 163 of BNSS. The only other signs of activity were the scattered footsteps of a handful of protesters who managed to make their way to Janpath, hoping to join ‘Jantar Mantar 2.0’.
Instead, the trio found themselves among the barely 50-odd people who had made it to the ‘core zone’ in small batches after navigating heavy police deployment and barricades along Ashoka Road. Prince, a first-year School of Open Learning student, cycled all the way from Rohini, reaching the site at 8 am. Bollywood actor Rajendranath Zutshi was detained after arriving with four other people, including a 75-year-old person.
Among them was Abhinav Yadav (name changed), who was looking for a face mask, in case he was detained by cops and filmed by “digital patrakars”. At New Delhi railway station, the three told police they were in Delhi for an Army recruitment physical test. “ Physical ka bata diye taaki yaha tak pohochhne de, yaha aake dekha koi hai hi nahi ,” Yadav said. As her friends were being bundled into a police bus, Rida said cops on the ground left protesters with little room to move. “They are trapping us from all sides, putting up barricades at all corners,” she said. “If police try to detain me, I’ll just cycle away,” he said. “ Hum to ese hi tehelte tehelte aye the , but they picked us up midway,” Zutshi said. His passenger, he said, needed to catch an early flight, but Mateen feared the road restrictions would make that difficult. “By the looks of it, I don’t think the person will be able get out of his hotel today,” Mateen said.
Having travelled by train from UP’s Etawah with two friends, he had envisioned a crowd twice larger than the one that had taken over the iconic protest site in June-July. From there they reached Gurdwara Bangla Sahib early in the morning before making their way towards the protest site. For others travelling from across Delhi-NCR, reaching even the periphery of the protest site became an exercise in improvisation. With public transport completely unavailable in the area and mobile phones largely working only for calls, most turned to whatever means they could find. He found the sparse turnout disappointing, but was not ready to leave. Even those who just about reached the barricades were not spared. The group had not even managed to get far into the restricted area when police intervened. The curbs also affected those with no intention of joining the stir. Abdul Mateen, a cabbie leaving Man Singh Road, had to cancel a pickup request after police stopped him from proceeding beyond Hotel Shangri-La.