Monday,  July 20, 2026 will be long remembered as a black day for Indian democracy. The images on social media being shared from Jantar Mantar in the national capital  were hard to watch: young students, some  of them girls, being pushed, dragged  and hit with lathis (long bamboo sticks) by the Delhi Police and paramilitary forces. The security forces  were ordered to prevent the protesters  from proceeding on a peaceful march to Parliament.

As a septuagenarian who grew up in a very different and inclusive India, there is a deep sadness in seeing the State – the constitutional guardian,   turn on its own citizen like a predator.  And yet, paradoxically, there was  also a sliver of hope. Because Jantar Mantar - the site of an 18th century observatory and an iconic protest site - had come alive after years, symbolizing the right of aggrieved  citizens to engage in peaceful protest.

Let me be clear. Violence cannot be condoned from any side. Some police and paramilitary personnel were also injured in the Jantar Mantar bedlam and that is deeply regrettable. But the onus lies with the State. The State has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force and with that comes the duty to exercise it with restraint.

 What India saw on Monday July 20  was the opposite of restraint. 

A Dangerous Trait

I spoke to several young people who were at the march last evening,  including a  young man who had come all the way from Mumbai to take part. What horrified him, he said, was not just the force unleashed by the police but the expression on their faces.

He said many of the cops were smiling,  even as they were swinging their lathis and seemed to be enjoying the sight of protesters cowering in fear. 

That is the most disturbing element that darkens July 20.  A police force is not supposed to enjoy using force against its own citizens – an option that it ought to use only as a last resort.

But such an orientation is  not new for the Delhi Police. Citizens of Delhi remember December 2019,  when  during the peaceful protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act,  Delhi Police stormed the library at Jamia Millia Islamia. They beat up students and many were injured. The images from inside the library are still seared into public memory.

A police  force develops a distinctive culture over the decades. Encouraging an ethos,   where the  indiscriminate use of   force with impunity   is tacitly allowed   can become a dangerous institutional trait.

Tanushree  Pandey, an intrepid  young  reporter who was on the ground, put out an anguished social media post. She wrote: “I feel like crying. I covered the riots in Manipur. And what the Delhi Police did today is the kind of brutality that we did not see even when the army was deployed in Manipur.”

Shrinking Space for Dissent

That one line says a lot.  It says a lot about the Indian Army and its ethos of discipline and restraint, even in the most difficult circumstances. And it says a lot about the Delhi Police and the impunity with which it has come to treat its own citizens.

When a reporter who has seen Manipur says Delhi was worse, it is very troubling. The Delhi Police does not act in isolation and takes its orders from the political apex. The fact that the Commissioner of Police was changed overnight has its own sub-text.

That is why this protest is not just about a few policemen on the street. This is about the political leadership that defines the template of citizen-state interaction : empathetic or callous ?  

Over the last decade plus, India has  seen a steady erosion of the space for dissent. Protest has been painted as anti-national. Dissent has been called disruption. And institutions that are meant to protect citizens have been turned into instruments to coerce and intimidate  them.

Willingness to Show Up

July 20 is a continuation of that trend. But it is also, I believe, a turning point.

Despite the bleakness,  there is hope because citizens from all walks of life from across India joined the protest. Some estimates put the number as being close to 50,000.  Students formed the majority but there were parents, unemployed youth  and a large number   of  concerned citizens,  including young women who braved numerous odds to be there at  Jantar Mantar. Collectively they came to say: we want the education system in the country to be set right. 

Jantar Mantar has been the site of so many movements in India’s democracy. Farmers, workers, students and military veterans.  It is the venue where the citizen exercises the right to assemble and protest  peacefully,  and seek redress from the  state for genuine grievances.

The fact that the state responded with disproportionate force does not diminish that right. It only proves why that space matters.

Democracy is not just about voting every five years. Democracy is about the ability to look your government in the eye and say “you are wrong” — without fear of being beaten for it.

And yes, July 20 was a sad day for democracy. It was sad to see brutal force used against young citizens. It was sad to see the Delhi Police behave in a manner that shames the uniform.

 But it was also a day that reignited an intangible spark. The refusal to be silent and the willingness to show up. The belief that the right to protest has not been completely trampled.

Institutional Corrosion

The state can use barricades and lathis with a smirk.  But it cannot, in the long run, trample the idea that citizens have rights.

As institutional corrosion goes, it  was very sad to see a section of the audio-visual media (compliant television channels)  choose obfuscation  over the truth.  In a manner reminiscent of the 1975 emergency ,  Indian citizens were turning to foreign media  outlets to get  their news about what was happening at Jantar Mantar.

Thanks to a small number of fearless reporters and citizen journalists – the scale of the violence unleashed at Jantar Mantar was recorded. Numbers are imprecise but it is reported that several hundred protesters have been injured and taken to hospital, while the Delhi Police has stated that 70 of their personnel were also injured.

 That is institutional corrosion when police forget the Constitution of India and the  media echoes  the state in disparaging  the citizen. On July 20  brave citizens held up a mirror to both the State and the mainstream media  and reminded them that India is “We the People.”

 (The author is an Indian Navy veteran and a strategic analyst. The views expressed are personal)