Several journalists were stopped from doing their work and detained in Delhi on October 10. They were dragged by their clothes, pushed and manhandled, their phones snatched, and pressured to delete footage of police action. Some were picked up kilometres away from the protest site; others were detained despite wearing press ID cards and repeatedly identifying themselves as journalists.
The sweeping crackdown on reporters from both independent and mainstream media outlets unfolded in the world’s largest democracy under a government led by a Prime Minister who has not held a single press conference in 12 years.
The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), along with Left-affiliated student groups and organisations, called for a demonstration at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on October 10 demanding the resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, accusing the poll panel of manipulating voter lists, and seeking a rollback of the exercise.
From early morning, journalists from several independent media outlets were detained before they could reach Jantar Mantar. Ayush Tiwari, a reporter with Scroll, was covering a group of around 50–60 protesters outside the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Road at around 10:45 am when Delhi Police began detaining them.
“Police arrived at the spot and for some time they were following these guys, constantly behind them. There were about 50 to 60 protesters and 50 to 60 cops. Then a senior cop showed up, and said, ‘Why aren’t you detaining these guys? Just pick them up.’ So a few minutes later they started detaining them, and about 20–30 of them were put in a bus, which also included an India Today journalist. I saw him flash his press card to the cop, but before he could even get out, the bus left,” Tiwari said.
The protesters subsequently moved around 100 metres away, outside HKS Surjeet Bhavan, the CPI(M) office, where they continued raising slogans as Delhi Police personnel stood about 40 metres away. Tiwari said the slogans were not abusive. Soon, however, a larger group of police personnel arrived and began attacking the protesters, many of whom retreated inside the building through its iron gates.
Tiwari was recording the events when a police officer directed others to detain him as well. “At one point, the police were on my right, and the protesters were on my left, and I was sandwiched between them. While I was making a video, one of the cops said, ‘Drag him away, isko bhi le jao (take him also).’ I was wearing my press card at all times. And I shouted, saying, ‘I am a journalist; let me go.’ They didn’t listen; they pushed me very hard. I also resisted, so I got a scratch on my waist and my shirt was ripped,” he said.
Tiwari was taken on a bus with around 10 other protesters. They were told they were being taken to Sarai Rohilla, but the bus moved slowly through traffic. When it reached the area outside Paharganj police station, people outside alerted those inside that fumes were coming out of the vehicle. The protesters began shouting at the police, warning that they could die if a fire broke out. “The protesters started shouting at the cops, saying, ‘Let us go, we will die. There will be a fire,’” Tiwari recalled.
Police eventually opened the gates and allowed the detainees to get off outside Paharganj police station. Tiwari began walking away, but a police officer called him back inside. He refused, telling the officer that they would have to drag him in. After he challenged one of the officers, the policeman gave up and let him leave.
Throughout the day, police used force to detain journalists even after they identified themselves as members of the press. Anushka Bhardwaj, a journalist with Business Standard, was dragged by her bag and clothes as she resisted detention. According to a , police initially let her go after she identified herself as a journalist. The same personnel later returned and told her, “Bahot ho gaya tera, bahot der se journalist journalist kar rahi hai” (Enough of this; you’ve been going on about being a journalist for too long), before dragging her away. “My shirt was going up, up. They didn’t care,” she recounted.