New Delhi: All India Students’ Association president Neha Bora, psephologist-activist Yogendra Yadav, transparency activist Anjali Bhardwaj and senior advocate Prashant Bhushan were among the dozens of protesters detained on Day 2 of ‘Jantar Mantar 2.0’. The protest had barely kicked off when it mutated into a show of force and brute violence by the Delhi police, going by accounts of the day.Even before the majority of protesters had arrived, when only the media and curious bystanders were present on the roads leading to Jantar Mantar, the deployment of security forces was heavy. Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel stood holding tear gas launchers with shell containers slung over their shoulders.The protest – organised to demand chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation – was due to start at 1 pm, and within half an hour the police had put up a banner on the barricades outside one entry point to Jantar Mantar, announcing that section 163 of the BNSS had been put into force.Typically at protests, as was seen during the last round of protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), there is a sea of protesters. There is sloganeering, the holding up of placards and the possibility of camaraderie is in the air. But this time, behind the barricades, was a sea of Delhi police, RAF and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel.RAF personnel at Jantar Mantar Road on October 3, 2026, ahead of a second day of protests demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation. Photo: Antara Baruah.An RAF officer was also recording protesters and media persons with what appeared to be a GoPro camera. Upon being asked what it was, he did not respond and put it back in his pocket.Other than for a brief few minutes, the afternoon’s soundtrack was largely the Delhi police’s monotone, mechanical announcements. “Please cooperate with the police and maintain law and order. Police sarkari ko nuksaan alag se kanuni karvayi hogi. Yahan se hat jaayein [Obstructing police and officials will invite separate proceedings. Move away from here].”The protesters, largely groups of students from universities in Delhi, were choked, pushed and shoved. After the detentions had taken place, there were only a handful of students who remained.Later, on Saturday evening, journalists held a demonstration outside the Parliament Street police station demanding an FIR against a police officer who is accused of sexually assaulting a woman reporter when she was filming Bora’s detention in the afternoon.Unlike on Friday, when thousands of people turned up at Jantar Mantar to demand that CEC Kumar resign, around 150 people turned up at the site on the afternoon of Day 2. Even as the government deployed a large number of security personnel, it did not shut down metro stations or impose a clampdown on internet access on Saturday.Sarthak, a student from JNU, had his shirt ripped by the police. Mohammad Kaif’s phone was snatched from him as he tried to record the violence, and his arm twisted. Kaif is a journalist and works as a cameraperson.Photo: Antara Baruah.“It’s a very small matter. In a democracy, we are allowed to register our dissent through various means. One of them is peaceful protesting. But the police are robbing us of our mediums. On social media, we are made to feel like criminals for posting. Those expressing solidarity with the workers in Noida have been arrested under the NSA [National Security Act],” said Sarthak. “We are only a democracy in name. Why is the ITBP here? Who is looking after our borders?”Unfazed by the violence, Sarthak said they would return to Jantar Mantar tomorrow.‘Government cannot choose its voters’The protesters marched from Patel Chowk to Jantar Mantar, which was barricaded from all sides. They managed to breach the first layer. The slogans that broke through the thrum of the Delhi police’s announcements were “Dilli police vardi utaro, RSS ki chadi dalo” [‘Take off your uniform, Delhi police, and wield the RSS’s baton instead’], “jab jab Modi darta hai police ko aage karta hai” [Whenever Modi is scared he deploys the police], “Gyanesh Kumar murdabad” [Down with Gyanesh Kumar] and “Gyanesh Kumar istifa do” (Gyanesh Kumar, hand in your resignation), with the latter two referring to chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.There were sporadic chants of ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ as well, a reminder that this protest was not by the CJP, who have prevented protesters from using the term.But just as the protest picked up momentum, as the procession was marching into the Jantar Mantar roundabout, the police began cracking down on the peaceful protesters. At no point in the day did the protesters outnumber the security forces. Initially, prior to the arrival of Bora and other activists, buses were leaving with just three or four people.All India Students’ Association president Neha Bora and other protesters at Jantar Mantar. Photo: PTI/Karma Bhutia.One group of protesters of about five or six people arrived chained together, their hands connected through a string of steel chains. The idea was to evoke a sense of the collective – they were literally bound together. Two of these protesters then lay down on the ground, which is when the police dragged them by their feet, pulling them towards a bus. The four women behind them were also dragged, and similarly roughhoused.Another protester, who was also part of a chain, stood outside the bus. The police wrenched him from the ground into the bus through the window, forcing him to clamber in through the gaps between the bars.Many of these detained, including Yadav, Bhushan and Bhardwaj, were taken to Badarpur in southeast Delhi.A couple of protesters at Jantar Mantar noted the lack of organisation. According to them, Bora had sent the call to arrive at the site too late, as a result of which people were unaware of the protest.However, nearly all protesters The Wire spoke to were remarkably well-informed about why they had gathered there.“The election commissioners have opposed the SIR [special intensive revision]. [Former chief election commissioner] S.Y. Quraishi has given plenty of interviews. They have chosen a nuclear option for a small exercise. We have never seen this in the history of India. The EC is supposed to register and facilitate voters,” said 25-year-old Deva, a lawyer.Their friend, who did not want to be identified, votes in Asansol.“My name was cut, and I checked the list. Most of the names in my constituency who had been cut were Muslims. So, I came to protest,” she claimed. “The SIR needs to be scrapped. The government cannot choose its voters.”Anger against the Election Commission and CEC Kumar over the SIR of voter rolls has flared up in the wake of the Indian Express‘s landmark investigation exposing a measure of dysfunction at the very top of the poll body over the revision exercise.Opposition parties apart from the CJP have also called for CEC Kumar to step down over the newspaper’s revelation that commissioners Vivek Joshi and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu objected to or complained about being in the dark over various aspects of the contentious SIR. The EC is required to work by consensus or, when that is not possible, by majority.Other than the thousands who gathered at Jantar Mantar on Friday, up to 5,000 people also congregated outside Mumbai’s Shivaji Park yesterday to demand CEC Kumar’s resignation on the CJP’s clarion call.If Kumar does not put in his papers by October 10, the CJP has said it will call for a protest at Jantar Mantar. The outfit had led an agitation at the site that culminated in the massive march to parliament on July 20 and Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s unprecedented resignation four days later.