‘Is this not our country’: What CJP protesters said as they defied police crackdown

Thousands of protesters, mobilised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) under its "Chalo Sansad" (March to Parliament) banner, converged in New Delhi on Monday (July 20), refusing to back down even as police deployed extensive barricading, baton charges, and tear gas. Their central demand was the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, and the march arrived pointedly on the opening day of Parliament's Monsoon Session.

Follow LIVE: CJP 'Chalo Sansad' protest turns violent

Several protesters were detained and removed from multiple locations across the New Delhi district as forces stepped up action to prevent demonstrators from assembling and marching towards Parliament, according to sources.

By day break, central parts of the Capital had transformed into a dense crowd of marchers carrying flags and placards, chanting as they pushed toward Sansad Marg or Parliament Street, only to be halted by multiple barricade lines set up well in advance by police.

The crowd included schoolchildren, college students, parents and senior citizens. Some children even came in school uniforms, while others wore cockroach costumes.

Protesters refuse to budge

Among the demonstrators was Glory, a Delhi University (DU) student, who described repeated attempts by police to stop the march and said protesters endured tear gas and lathicharge but remained resolved not to retreat.

"They tried to stop us multiple times. There was heavy barricading all along the route. We also faced lathicharge and tear gas, but we will not turn back," she said, according to news agency PTI.

Other students voiced frustration that weeks of agitation had produced no real response from the government, with one warning that a nation which neglects its students risks its own decline.

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Sanskriti Kumar, another DU student, said the group intended to keep protesting until their demand — Pradhan's resignation — was met, framing it as a modest and achievable ask rather than something beyond the government's power to deliver.

"If we have come this far, we will see this through till the end," she warned.

Older participants brought a different kind of resolve to the demonstration. Kaniz Fatima, a 52-year-old Jamia Millia Islamia alumna, had been supporting the movement at Jantar Mantar since it began, standing alongside activists who had by then spent three weeks on hunger strike.

'Don't citizens have right to question?'

She questioned why students demanding their rights were met with force rather than dialogue, and described the protest as a defining moment — one where too much sacrifice had already gone into reaching this point to allow momentum to fade.

"Is this not our country? Do we, as citizens, not have the right to raise questions and challenge situations we do not agree with? Why are they resorting to lathicharge against students who have come here only to demand their rights?" Fatima asked.

Younger attendees took on real risk simply to be present. Anshika, 17, from Badarpur in southeast Delhi, had told her family she was headed to school, concealing her actual plan to join the demonstration.

Peaceful gathering turns into fight with cops

What began as participation in a peaceful gathering turned, in her account, into a physical confrontation with police — she said she was forcibly pulled down and restrained by two female officers, and displayed bruising on her hand as evidence. She criticised political leaders for seeking votes from communities like hers while ignoring concerns such as the NEET paper leak, and asked why a peaceful protest was being treated as a threat.

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Prakash, one of the protesters, alleged that the march was peaceful, but police used force against them. "There are old people, they were collapsing... But the police did not stop," he said.

Sandeep, a student from Delhi, sat on the pavement nearby with a bleeding head injury, alleging that he was struck during a baton charge near Sansad Marg.

The gathering also drew people from well beyond Delhi. Kismat, a 20-year-old from Vaishali in Bihar, said she had traveled through the night from Patna specifically to take part, having concealed her plans from her family out of concern they would worry about her safety.

Despite the confrontations, protesters were consistent in saying they intended to continue their agitation until their demands — chiefly Pradhan's removal — were addressed by the government.

The crowd itself reflected a wide cross-section of Delhi and beyond: children who had slipped away from home without their parents' knowledge, elderly citizens who had journeyed in from other states, and students holding hand-lettered placards, some dressed in cockroach costumes referencing the organisation's name.

Together, they formed what witnesses described as a sea of people moving in coordinated groups toward the parliamentary complex, undeterred by rain or the visible police presence lining their route.

Protesters detained at key locations

Detentions were made from areas of the Capital, such as Mandi House, Patel Chowk, Janpath, Jantar Mantar, Sansad Marg and other key locations.

Those detained were being taken to different locations across the city, away from the protest site, so that they could not regroup and challenge law and order, the sources added.

They will be released after being issued warnings, a source told PTI, adding that police would verify the antecedents of those detained to ascertain whether any of them had previous criminal records.

Security, meanwhile, remained tight across the New Delhi district with multiple layers of barricading, heavy deployment of Delhi Police personnel and paramilitary forces. Vehicles were also being checked at key junctions and border points.