Morning shows the day as citizens display grit to beat Delhi Police’s efforts to stop ‘Jantar Mantar 2.0’

Before dawn broke in New Delhi on Saturday (October 10, 2026), tension was palpable at Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station as porters and taxi drivers hunted for work, acutely aware of the work they would lose later in the day after the government cancelled dozens of trains. But at rest stops and parking lots, the workers had one eye on their smartphones as the whispers went around — “the public has awakened now”, “looks like the police are preparing to beat up protesters”, and “all eyes are now on Jantar Mantar”.

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Spirited individuals

Geetika, a 25-year-old software engineer, quietly left her Faridabad home before 5 a.m., careful not to wake her mother, and booked a cab to Jantar Mantar; 63-year-old Shaheena and her 36-year-old daughter Sabika Muzaffar drove from their Gurugram home, with a hand-made poster concealed in a black map-holder; and students from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) found a way out of the campus in the dead of the night, notebooks in hand to mask themselves amongst the gaggle of journalists and press-persons they knew would gather outside the Jantar Mantar protest site.

Ruma Saikia, who travelled to Delhi from Assam, had been trying to reach Jantar Mantar since 6 a.m. but could not, even as citizens like 19-year-old college student Jiya spent the night in a car with her mother at the parking lot outside the Bangla Sahib Gurudwara, hoping to demonstrate on Saturday (October 10) morning.

Even as armed Border Security Force (BSF) arrived at the Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station before sunup to monitor exiting passengers, the Delhi Police was fortifying the entirety of New Delhi, especially the designated protest site in the heart of the national capital to prevent ‘Jantar Mantar 2.0’, a protest called by youth organisations, seeking Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over alleged special intensive revision (SIR)-linked vote theft.

By 9 a.m. Geetika, Shaheena, and Sabika had been detained and put on buses, some after holding a poster for 15 minutes, while others after they started speaking to the press about why they thought they needed to be there.

Sporadic in the morning