Student Groups Protest Examination Irregularities in Delhi

Prashant Singh, a visual arts student at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi, recalled the searing pain of pellet shards piercing his right arm as police cracked down on protesters near Connaught Place on July 20. “It seemed as if I was being pierced by tens of needles at the same time,” he described, his voice steady despite the trauma. Singh, who works as an artist’s apprentice to support himself, was among dozens injured when Delhi Police deployed pellet guns, tear gas, and lathicharges to disperse demonstrators during the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led “Sansad Chalo” march (The Hindu).

The protest, part of a five-week agitation at Jantar Mantar demanding Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation over examination irregularities, drew an unprecedented crowd on July 20. Both ends of Jantar Mantar were packed to capacity, with demonstrators spilling onto Tolstoy Road, Janpath Lane, Sansad Marg, and Jantar Mantar Road. More protesters continued to arrive even as police began their crackdown, according to eyewitness accounts (The Hindu). The CJP, along with other student organizations, had been staging daily sit-ins at Jantar Mantar since June, but the scale of the July 20 march—aimed at pressuring Parliament—prompted an unusually harsh response from authorities.

Police actions that day were described as “brutal, unwarranted, and unexpected” by participants. Pellet guns, categorized as “non-lethal” crowd-control tools, fired cartridges containing 300–500 lead pellets that scatter in a cone-shaped trajectory, often causing deep tissue damage. Sheikh Irshad Mansoori, another protester, was hit by 40 pellets across his body, including his eyes, neck, and face, necessitating urgent surgery to prevent vision loss in his left eye (The Hindu). The use of such weaponry echoes earlier controversies, notably in Jammu and Kashmir in 2016, when indiscriminate pellet gun firing during protests following Burhan Wani’s death led to thousands of injuries, including ruptured eyeballs and blindness. Amnesty International termed it a “mass blinding crisis,” prompting India’s Ministry of Home Affairs to form an expert committee that year (The Hindu).

The July 20 crackdown has reignited debates over police tactics in Delhi. While the CJP and allies framed their agitation as a demand for accountability in education policy, the government did not publicly comment on the protest or the police response. Prashant Singh, still recovering with pellet fragments embedded in his arm, reflected on the aftermath: “Even the doctors were confused. After treatment, I was left alone as more injured protesters arrived.” His experience underscores the lasting physical and psychological toll of the day’s events.

The incident remains under scrutiny, with no official statement addressing the use of pellet guns or the scale of force deployed. For now, the protesters’ demands—and the questions surrounding police conduct—remain unresolved.