Actor Amol Parashar on Tuesday took to social media to describe witnessing Delhi Police’s use of tear gas and lathi charges against protesters at Jantar Mantar on July 20. Thousands of protesters marched towards Parliament as part of the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) “Chalo Sansad” rally on Monday.
In a 15-part Instagram post, Parashar said he attended the protest incognito the previous night, wearing a mask, sunglasses and a cap, describing himself as wanting to stand among the protesters “as nothing but a fellow citizen”. He said the crowd, largely students and young people from varied fields rather than only NEET aspirants, remained disciplined and considerate throughout.
The CJP, a youth-led movement founded by Abhijeet Dipke, has camped at Jantar Mantar, demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the alleged 2026 NEET-UG paper leak. Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, who joined the protest and began an indefinite hunger strike, was forcibly removed by police from the site on July 18.
On the first day of Parliament’s monsoon session yesterday (July 20), Delhi Police denied permission for the march, shut five Metro stations and imposed prohibitory orders before using force to stop protesters from reaching Parliament; internet services were also suspended in the vicinity.
“Yesterday I learnt what is worse than the intense burning of eyes and the terrible taste of tear gas in your throat. The state of helplessness you feel when you see evil unfold right in front of your eyes, and you can do nothing to stop it. What is the future of a state that makes its youth feel so small, so humiliated, so insignificant. Like a pest being crushed and swatted away,” Parashar said.
In his post, the ‘Triplings’ actor further wrote, “I cried myself to sleep last night. Thinking about those who must have reached home with broken limbs and spirit, finally with network on their phones, and opened it to see that they had been called Pakistanis, paid agents, Chinese agents, foreign hands by their own fellow countrymen.”
Parashar ended his post with a message to the protesters, telling them they were “loved” and “cherished”. “And I want to thank you for teaching me some lessons: hold each other’s hands, respect each other, comfort each other if needed, clean up after yourself, clean up after other people, don’t be ashamed to ask for your rights, never stop appealing for humanity,” he concluded.