Making common cause against a common enemy

On 2 October, the day student and youth organisations called for a march to Jantar Mantar against the special intensive revision (SIR), social activist Nikhil Dey was locked in a physical tussle with the police on the streets of central Delhi.

Delhi Police had deployed its full force to prevent protesters from reaching Jantar Mantar. Multiple layers of barricades were erected along every route, with personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Rapid Action Force (RAF) stationed at key points. Vehicles equipped to fire tear gas shells and water cannons were in position. All this muscle and might only to prevent the citizens of India from staging a sit-in against their disenfranchisement.

Even as protesters failed to breach police cordons, they kept pouring into the streets. Young and old, students, farmers, workers, citizens decided to claim every place as Jantar Mantar. The fight to protect voting rights was spreading lane by lane, location by location, state by state.

Sample this.

On 23 October, afternoon: Kalibari Road, near Gole Market, Delhi. The same evening: Sonia Vihar, Delhi. Uttar Pradesh: Ballia. Punjab: Barnala, Mansa, Faridkot, Fatehgarh. Karnataka: Kalaburagi. Telangana: Hyderabad. West Bengal: Basirhat. Andaman and Nicobar Islands: Andaman Islands. Andhra Pradesh: Amalapuram. Maharashtra: Ahilyanagar. Odisha: Bhubaneswar. Rajasthan: Sri Ganganagar. Madhya Pradesh: Chhindwara.

One day, multiple locations. One banner, multiple organisations — the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), All India Kisan Khet Mazdoor Sangathan (AIKKMS) — all making common cause against a common enemy.

As many as 145 organisations mobilised in more than 100 cities across 18 states under the banner ‘People Against SIR’. Ashlesh Biradar, a member of the People Against SIR coordination team, says protests were held across 150 sites on 23 October (their website currently records 103). Asked about their concentration in the south with relatively fewer protests in Gujarat and the northwest, Biradar says, “All the information isn’t in yet. Once it is, you’ll see hundreds of Jantar Mantars across the map of India!”

The fight isn’t merely to reclaim Jantar Mantar as a space for peaceful protest. It is to raise public awareness about the Modi government’s criminal conspiracy to deprive people of their voting rights. Alongside voter-rights groups, the coalition includes organisations working to defend the Constitution, democracy and electoral accountability. Concerns range from social justice to culture, civil liberties to education.

In effect, People Against SIR is united in its opposition to the Modi-Shah regime. Announced on 14 October, following a meeting at Harkishan Singh Surjeet Bhawan in New Delhi, the ‘No SIR National Platform’ attracted prominent figures, including actor Prakash Raj, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, Ganesh Devy, P. Parakala Prabhakar, Tara Rao, Nikhil Dey and Nadeem Khan.

A coordination committee was formed with representatives from participating organisations. Separate teams were set up to manage the secretariat, grassroots activities, media, legal assistance and public audits. A dedicated communications system included a central WhatsApp group, to inform people about protest sites in their neighbourhood.

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The run-up to this moment can possibly be traced to 23 September, when The Indian Express reported that two election commissioners had disagreed with or objected to ECI decisions as many as 14 times in 10 months.

The disclosure sparked outrage over ECI-enabled vote theft under the guise of the SIR, prompting protesters to head to Jantar Mantar on Gandhi Jayanti. The government turned the site into a fortress.

This did not stop the follow-up protest of 10 October (where molestation added a disturbing layer to the now familiar pattern of detention and intimidation). On 13 October, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) were arrested for trying to unfurl the national flag at Jantar Mantar. Citizens realised that for the long haul ahead, solidarity would mean joining forces not just individually but organisationally.

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Even as the steady stream of protests against the SIR shows no signs of slowing down, jan sunwai or public hearings have become crucial.

In 2002-03, Shankar Singh of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) conducted public hearings to scrutinise voter rolls at the Election Commission’s behest. In 2026, he is conducting public hearings to scrutinise the Election Commission’s work. Aware of the irony, he says, “People are terrified. They fear deportation, access to essential services being cut off, even being put in jail.”

Singh, who hails from Rajasthan’s Rajsamand district, is both a grassroots social activist and a playwright. He helped establish MKSS along with social activists Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey. An organisation known for its efforts to secure the Right to Information law has now joined the People Against SIR.

On 27 October, a jan sunwai at Ramlila Park in Trilokpuri, east Delhi, was led by MKSS, Voter Adhikar Manch, Jan Sarokar and the National Federation of Indian Women.

They found that 416 voters across four polling booths in the Trilokpuri Assembly constituency — Indira Camp booths 42 and 43, and Block 34 booths 79 and 80 — had been wrongly deleted.

Shankar Singh says, “Local residents from 300 households attended the hearing because members of all these organisations went door to door, informing people that a public hearing was being organised to help restore the names of those deleted.”

Nikhil Dey, who attended the Trilokpuri public hearing, says, “We have to fight. This is a huge issue. But it isn’t the job of citizens’ organisations; political parties must also engage. Only then will a way forward emerge. A public hearing is the democratic voice of the people. Those in power may suppress the Opposition — whose leaders are coming to the public hearings — but no one can suppress the people. No one can come to a jan sunwai and ask why you put up that poster or raised those slogans.”

Similar public hearings are being conducted at 100 polling booths in Karnataka, as well as in Telangana and Rajasthan.

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More than 200 volunteers have signed up from different professional backgrounds, carving out time to defend democracy. Akshit Tyagi, a 22-year-old software engineer from Delhi, specialises in machine learning. He designed the People Against SIR website and supports it both online and offline. Akshit was a regular at Jantar Mantar 1.0 this July. When the agitation against SIR began, he returned.

Sagarika Rajora, an advocate, works for the rights of migrant workers. To help people navigate the SIR process, she and her colleagues established the Voter Adhikar Manch, which is now helping People Against SIR. Sagarika coordinates with other volunteers on social media, conducts field visits and attends working-group meetings. “It’s a big fight, and people have become more aware. You can see that on the streets,” she says.

Vineet, 43, works for a tech company in Haryana, and is associated with the MKSS. He travelled at his own expense to New Delhi to participate in the Trilokpuri public hearing. He also went to Mangolpuri, where he helped people fill out Form 6. After spending the entire day counselling residents and explaining next steps, he caught a bus back to Hisar.

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It is important to remember that citizens’ organisations had already been protesting well before 23 October, be it in Lucknow, Hyderabad or Mumbai. On 16 October, hundreds gathered in Connaught Place, New Delhi to take part in the 'Lehra Do Tiranga' (fly the tricolour) event.

Saroj, a Delhi resident who participated in the Tebhaga and Telangana movements, says, “I have never seen such an incompetent government. The people who gave us the slogan ‘beti bachao, beti padhao’ (to save your daughter, teach your daughter) organise tricolour marches to protect rapists while preventing the country’s own citizens from unfurling the flag!”

Virag, from Gujarat, was in Connaught Place that day. He and his associates had organised a public book event in Ahmedabad, where they were assaulted by members of the VHP and Bajrang Dal. “Dictatorship prevails in this country,” he says. “One day, the dictator will quake, everyone will then be held accountable.”

Journalist and content creator Meghnad, who has declared himself an independent politician, says the movement has become decentralised.

“We received a call from Deoghar. They wanted to organise a protest with just four or five people and asked whether we could add it to the People Against SIR website and map. People are stepping up on their own. The size of the crowd doesn’t matter. This is about citizens. People Against SIR is becoming a platform through which they can connect. It won’t be easy for the government to snuff us all out."