Vendors around the CJP protest say takings tripled. The costs of Monday’s Sansad Chalo march fell on people who were never near it.
Ground report
By eight in the morning the milk had run short. A tea seller in the lane feeding into Jantar Mantar had sold a full day’s stock before the march began. Behind him, water cartons stood stacked four high, a supply line that did not exist a month ago.
A cigarette kiosk two lanes down had a queue of eleven. The shelf behind the counter was nearly bare.
Autos sat nose to tail outside the Metro exit, engines off. Drivers stood watching the Delhi Police barricades rather than the road. Several told our reporters they had stopped accepting long-distance rides because there was no reliable route out of the zone. Fruit sellers had moved their carts closer to the crowd. People waited in whatever shade the buildings threw, then moved when the police line moved.
Vendors, speaking separately to Capital Insider, put their sales at roughly three times a normal Monday, and said the lift had held for most of the month of the Jantar Mantar protest. Some estimated footfall on 20 July at close to one lakh, and cumulative visitors at around two lakh.
Those are vendor figures gathered by our reporting team, not official counts. Delhi Police have issued no crowd estimate. Press Trust of India described thousands at the site and close to a thousand protesters reaching the barricades near Parliament. A vendor counts transactions over sixteen hours. An agency counts marchers at a moment. Read one lakh as density, not headcount.
The official record
The Cockroach Janta Party, led by Abhijeet Dipke, has occupied Jantar Mantar for about a month, demanding accountability over alleged examination paper leaks and the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Sonam Wangchuk began a supporting hunger strike that reached its 21st day on 18 July. That morning, Delhi Police moved him to Safdarjung Hospital, saying in a statement that they acted on Delhi High Court directions and medical advice.
The Sansad Chalo march went ahead on Monday without permission, under prohibitory orders issued for the New Delhi district under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita. PTI reported a barricade breach near Parliament Street at about 11.25 am, followed by baton charges, with tear gas used later near Shastri Bhawan. The agency put injuries as minor on both sides and detentions at ten to fifteen. No official damage assessment has been released.
