In Anna’s Shadow: The Other Protests At Jantar Mantar

With Anna Hazare’s brand new dharna, Jantar Mantar, Delhi’s protest central, was firmly brought back in the limelight. Sure enough, it began to attract protesters agitating over every cause imaginable in the hopes of stealing some of that limelight for their own causes.

As we reached Jantar Mantar on the morning of February 24, we were greeted by a huge crowd of protesters. While the 30-something foot tall poster of Anna and the mob of police manning the barricades at the entrance to Jantar Mantar were clearly there for Anna’s dharna, this crowd wasn’t. The sea of red was the first giveaway, and as we proceeded further we saw the Centre of Indian Trade Unions’ (CITU) banners and placards.

CITU’s loud speakers left our eardrums worse for wear — the woman on stage was loud enough to not need a microphone but was using one anyway. Still, amid the din we were told by protesters that this was a protest demanding regularisation of jobs for mid-day meal workers.

The colour of protest changed from red to saffron as we moved past CITU workers. The contrast wasn’t in colour alone but also in size. A handful of people sat in protest against perceived injustice against Hindu saints under the banner “Vishal Jan Satyagraha”. The image of Asaram Bapu’s face loomed large on their posters, while a garlanded picture of Asaram also occupied pride of place on the protest stage.

Unlike the other protests that made high noise levels a priority, this group was positively sedate, chanting prayers from booklets while performing a havan in a makeshift havan kund they had fashioned out of the ground in front of their stage. Low on the decibel scale maybe, but top marks for creativity.

Their neighbours-in-protest couldn’t have been further removed from the saffron brigade. Clad in jeans, lab coats, reading books and browsing the internet on iPads, this lot of protesters looked like they belonged in college rather than at a protest and that turned out to be the case – they were PhD students protesting for an increase in government-funded fellowships. In terms of size, they were by far the smallest group with just four members and had just got smaller with one of their members being hospitalised after pulling an Anna and going on hunger-strike.

They claimed to be a far larger group and informed us that they were protesting in six-hour shifts so they didn’t fall behind on research – the sort of planning that could only be expected from PhD students.

Only once we’d passed these PhD students, did we start to see signs of protests against the Land Acquisition ordinance, yet even these weren’t part of Anna’s movement. Instead they were part of the Bharatiya Kisan Mazdoor Sanghatan. Even as they tried to hold the crowd’s attention, the show was stolen by another group of protesters who decided to burn an effigy of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat. After all, what protest is complete without burning an effigy?

The group, which goes by the name Rashtriya Krantikari Samajwadi Party, chanted slogans against Bhagwat for his comments on Mother Teresa. They confused everyone around, though, by carrying banners protesting against Modi for failing to control Swine Flu.

When we spoke to them about their mixed protesting, they clarified that they had originally been protesting against Modi and swine flu the previous day. Clearly, they had spent all the time available making an effigy rather than printing banners to go with it.

In the midst of all the chaos, the only people to be found with smiles on their faces were the snack vendors, some of whom had been at the India Against Corruption protests and had anticipated a similar turnout today. While they termed the turnout at Anna’s protest disappointing, the unexpected presence of other large groups of protesters as well as the swathes of expectant journalists was a saving grace. One man’s protest is clearly another man’s opportunity and even if Anna might not have been happy with others trying to ride his coat-tails, the vendors certainly were glad for it.