इतना भी मत डराओ कि डर ही खत्म हो जाए।Don’t frighten people so much that they stop being afraid altogether.The massive crowds that came on to the streets of central Delhi on July 20 certainly proved the truth of that aphorism.If there were any apprehensions that Sonam Wangchuk’s dialled down expectations from the government would dampen the enthusiasm of protestors ready to march to parliament, they were quickly dispelled. Reaching close to the Jantar Mantar protest site at 8:30 am, half an hour before the stipulated starting time of the march, it became quickly clear that the thousands of young people gathering there and on the streets nearby were not bothered with the nuances of Wangchuk’s demands or even with what was being said from the Cockroach Janata Party’s stage.They had come to march to parliament and register their protest against a government that they knew had stopped caring about them (if it, in fact, ever did).I tried to enter the protest site that I had frequented almost daily for the past one week and found it impossible to get even within 300 metres of it, so crowded was it.A young college student holding a sign that read “We want BJP out” said he has attempted the NEET exam twice said, “I am here with my fellow students because we are fed up of all the scams.’A protester in New Delhi on July 20. Photo: Rohit Kumar.I asked him if he was afraid of what might happen today, he said, “Why should we be afraid? We are here protesting peacefully.“ I reminded him of the government’s dubious track record with peaceful protests and he said,”Sometimes you just have to take a risk and I want to remind my fellow students to keep fighting for their rights and not give up. Jai Hind!”Another college student who did not wish to be videoed said, “The resignation of our education minister is only the starting point. The real culprit is a system which has ceased to take accountability for anything! We as kids have through enough entrance exams and unemployment issues that we know our voice should matter! To my follow students, I want to say, Wake up and raise your voice.”The word “accountability” came up so many times during the day, I lost count. Priyanshu, a B.Tech student, soaked to the skin by rain that had just finished, put his point across succinctly, “If students are suffering, you cannot expect a country to develop!”A short distance away I met a young woman who reminded me that I had met her at a farmers’ rally in the capital in 2018 when she had just passed out of high school. Anushka, who now works in public policy, said, “I just want to remind everyone that Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation is only the first step. We have been fighting for a while – first for the farmers, then for students, then for doctors, then against the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens. The issues keep changing but the government remains the same. It is now time to change the government! And we will not quit till we get a government that is fair and not bigoted.”I made a mental note of what she has just said and decided that I would send this short video recording of hers to those of my generation who are convinced in their pessimism that nothing will ever change.A protester shows their poster in New Delhi on July 20. Photo: Rohit Kumar.As I walked out towards Janpath, one of the main shopping streets of central Delhi, I saw wave upon wave of young people marching in groups, raising slogans. The favourite seemed to be,‘Jab jab jab Modi darta hai, police ko aage karta hai!’‘Modi hides behind the police when he is afraid.’Hundreds upon hundreds of protestors from Chandra Shekhar Aazad’s Bhim Army also kept arriving and chanting “Jai Bhim!” Ankit, a law student who had come from Himachal for the protest told me that there were at least one lakh protestors here. Looking at the swelling ocean of people, I tended to agree with him. In my five decades of living in Delhi, I had never seen Janpath or the Connaught Place area this full. Ankit also told me that CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke was making repeated announcements from the stage to keep the protest peaceful. Internet services shut down soon enough and standing at Janpath, it became impossible to tell what was happening with the rest of the protest or what time the march to parliament would take place. It was ironic that, standing at the heart of the protest site, I had to call those who were not there to tell me what was going on there. No one seemed to have a very clear idea, besides sporadic news of the Cockroach leadership’s meeting J.P. Nadda, and also news of police welding together the barricades at Jantar Mantar to keep the protestors there contained.Police personnel block a road with barricades, ahead of the Cockroach Janata Party’s (CJP) protest march, at the Jantar Mantar, in New Delhi, early Monday, July 20, 2026. Photo: PTI.In the crowd at Janpath was the family of Riya Kumar Thapa, a NEET aspirant from Uttarakhand who took her life when she heard the news of the NEET exams being leaked yet again. Her family carrying posters of her photo, expressed their disbelief at the government’s complete refusal to even express a word of solidarity at their loss. “Never mind the central government,” said her uncle, “Even the local BJP leaders have started maintaining a distance from us after our daughter died.” By noon, the protestors, clearly tired of waiting to be told what to do, began marching towards parliament. Walking in the crowd was a young Sikh man carrying a poster that said, “Uth be saale”. I asked him what that meant.Introducing himself as Bakshish Singh, he told me, “This is not our slogan. This is slogan given to us by the authorities.” Singh was referring to what the police allegedly said to Sonam Wangchuk as they roughly removed him from the protest site a couple of days earlier.A protester, Bakshish Singh, in New Delhi on July 20. Photo: Rohit Kumar.“I am telling the government in their own language to wake up! Wake up and stop hanging onto your chairs! And I say the same to those who are not here today — wake up!”Next to him walked a young man with a poster that said, “The boot you lick stomps on our kids!”As the procession turned right on Raisina Road near Le Meridien hotel to head towards Parliament, the sound of loud explosions began to fill the air. The police had begun firing tear gas on the crowd up ahead. Protestors began running and screaming, with lathi-wielding Rapid Action Force personnel in hot pursuit.As the attack on the protestors subsided for a few minutes, I saw a couple of young boys who were barely out of school rubbing their eyes furiously. A friend I was with gave them a bottle of water and we told them to rinse their eyes out and wash their hands and faces throughly, which they did.A Delhi Police personnel throws a tear gas shell near Parliament House, at the Windsor Place roundabout, Le Méridien hotel, in New Delhi, Monday, July 20, 2026. Photo: PTI.One of them, Harshraj, who has just passed out of school said, “I have come to demand accountability from this government. We had reached quite close to Parliament where the other protestors ahead of us told us to sit peacefully in front of the barricading. We were sitting down there when suddenly the cops fired tear gas shells on us. A shell literally flew past my face. Another one actually went down my friend’s shirt and burned his shoes. Our eyes, head, face and skin feel like they are on fire!”Harshraj’s friend said, “For a few minutes I couldn’t see anything! We felt sick and had to sit down while the police kept firing tear gas.”“This is the accountability we asked for, is it? And this is supposed to be an elected government!” Harshraj said, his eyes filling up.Another journalist friend who I had come to the protest with had gone on ahead, called and said, “Don’t go back! Keep walking till you reach Press Club of India. It will be safer there!” Press Club of India, barely a few hundred metres away from parliament, became witness to the next attack on protestors. The main gate of the Press Club was closed but people standing on the roof helpfully motioned us to enter the Club by a small side gate till things had calmed down. The scene near the Press Club, on July 20. Photo: Rohit Kumar.It was difficult to sit inside for too long, knowing that young students were being brutalised just outside, and so we stepped out again. Thankfully, things had calmed down a bit by then. We walked past a bus containing detained protestors who told us to move away quickly, lest we got detained too. The traffic situation in central Delhi was, by this time, completely haywire. Wanting to see what was happening in the rest of the area, we flagged down an auto rickshaw who agreed to drive us around. All over Connaught Place, Ashoka Road and surrounding areas, one saw heavy police deployment and debris on the road. As far away as Gol Market, we saw security forces chasing a group of young people and firing a tear gas shell at them for good measure. All during peak office hours, with regular commuters trying to get home. It was a surreal sight, to say the least!A protester in New Delhi on July 20. Photo: Rohit Kumar.By this time, the sun had begun to set. One could have been forgiven for thinking that Diwali was near, so regular were the explosions of tear gas guns. We headed back to Connaught Place outer circle, which by now resembled a full fledged battle zone. Huge crowds chanted as Rapid Action Force and police personnel fired tear gas on them and then chased them and beat them with batons. Those who were simply standing there also felt the sting of police batons. Not even media persons were spared. Vineet, a cybersecurity entrepreneur, wasn’t spared either. “I was beaten on my legs, They even hit elderly women on the head! The police just don’t care. We have been attacked for simply wanting to march to parliament and speak to our elected representatives. Democracy is dead. It is now time not just for Dharmendra Pradhan, but for Narendra Modi to resign as well.” Vikas, a young student from Chitrakoot, UP, also injured in the police action, but remarkably calm, said, “Only a small percentage of those who wanted to come to Delhi from all India actually managed to reach here. The youth of India will now not sit quietly. This has only just begun.”Rohit Kumar is an educator.