1000’s of protesters gathered at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Friday (August 21, 2026) below the banner of Reservation Hatao Andolan (RHA), a CJP-style Instagram-page led mobilisation of anger towards India’s reservation coverage because it exists. The protesters referred to as for an overhaul of the reservation system, demanding that quota in public training and employment solely be based mostly on an earnings standards fairly than on socio-economic classes, and likewise raised calls for like “one household, one reservation”, and referred to as for the federal government to roll again the UGC’s 2026 caste-equity guidelines.
The motion started when a scholar, Harsh Dubey, began the RHA Instagram web page whereas the scholar motion being led by the Cockroach Janta Get together was demanding the resignation of erstwhile Training Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Quickly after Mr. Pradhan’s resignation, Mr. Dubey stated he had handed over management of the web page to veteran anti-reservation and normal class activists Anuradha Tiwari, Ajeet Bharti, and Neha Das.
The protests in Jantar Mantar on Friday (August 21) come amidst the Bharatiya Janata Get together-led Union authorities reiterating India’s stance that reservations for socio-economic classes corresponding to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Different Backward Courses weren’t a poverty alleviation scheme however a scheme meant to make sure the illustration of marginalised communities which have suffered from social, financial, and academic backwardness for generations. Additional, on Thursday (August 20), the Union authorities had informed the Supreme Court docket that it was rethinking the 2026 UGC fairness rules, which had led to wave of protests in January this 12 months as properly.
On Friday (August 21) morning, the protesters, lots of whom have been mobilised by totally different organisations representing folks from “normal” castes corresponding to Karni Sena and Ranbir Sena, arrived at Jantar Mantar regardless of public statements from the Delhi Police saying that no permission had been granted for an indication at this web site. By midday on Friday (August 21), the Delhi Police launched one other assertion saying the protest had been permitted however at Ramlila Floor.
Stand-off with police
Nevertheless, the protesters, tons of of whom had already gathered at Jantar Mantar, refused to depart and had a stand off with the safety personnel guarding the Jantar Mantar protest web site behind a number of layers of barricading. Round 2 p.m., at the same time as protesters shouted slogans towards reservation, chanted “UGC rollback”, blew conch shells and chanted ‘Jai Shree Ram’, safety personnel opened the barricading, ensuing within the protesters pouring into the Jantar Mantar web site. By night, the protesters had arrange a stage with a banner that learn: “Reservation Reform Satyagraha”.
The Delhi Police haven’t responded to questions on whether or not permission has been granted for the protest at Jantar Mantar web site subsequently.
Round 7.30 p.m., police personnel introduced on loudhailers that the gathering at Jantar Mantar had been declared unlawful and safety personnel could possibly be seen placing protesters on buses and taking them away from the location. Because the police took protesters away on the buses, they charged, “Jab jab Modi darta hai, police ko aage karta hai”, a slogan that was just lately popularised in the course of the police motion on college students marching to Parliament.
The Delhi Police haven’t but responded to The Hindu’s queries on what number of protesters have been detained.
Nevertheless, Ms. Tiwari informed The Hindu late on Friday, “The protest will proceed. Extra persons are coming. The police can’t act like this. They did the identical factor in the course of the Cockroach protest as properly.”
Alok Pratap Singh from Bihar’s Ranbir Sena informed The Hindu, “There’s a large drawback in the best way we’ve got let reservation system take over each facet of politics. It has led to folks seeing the Normal class of us in a sure method. Poverty doesn’t have caste and there’s no purpose to proceed with reservation for sure caste teams. We’re at a degree the place all caste teams are equal. So, now our demand is that reservation ought to be based mostly solely on earnings and never on caste classes.”
Himani Sisodia, 27, from Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur, had additionally arrived on the protest web site, and stated, “Normal caste folks like us are those who’re struggling due to reservations. We’re paying double the worth for entrance examination types, we’re getting extra marks within the examinations and but we’re shedding jobs to reserved classes who’re paying much less to register and getting fewer marks. This has occurred to me additionally and that’s the reason I’m right here at present.”
To submit memo to govt.
Ms. Tiwari, who has been a part of the staff dealing with the RHA web page, stated the motion can be submitting an official letter to the federal government with their calls for shortly and added that in the interim the calls for have been centered on reforming the reservation coverage. “This has turn out to be an untouchable matter. No one is prepared to speak about the necessity to reform the reservation system,” she stated.
A major argument that the RHA motion has been making to assist its name for overhauling the reservation system has been to level in the direction of the focus of quotas being availed by a small part of communities inside every class of SC, ST, and OBC. This argument, which has led to bigger requires possibly introducing a creamy layer idea or the software of sub-categorisation, is being utilized by the RHA motion to name for an overhaul of the system itself.
On the Instagram web page, the RHA has posted a complete of 5 calls for. These are: income-based reservation; one household, one reservation — arguing reservation ought to solely be out there for one technology of a household; minimal qualifying marks for examinations and de-reserving unfilled reserved seats; a freeze on the 50% cap on reservations, a ban on political events promising elevated reservation, and periodic assessment of lists of communities that may qualify for quotas; and a sundown clause that gives an finish date for reservations.
However even because the protesters gathered at Jantar Mantar all through Friday (August 21), the activists main the RHA web page haven’t but made a press release about how lengthy they intend to display. Whereas Ms. Tiwari insisted that there isn’t a management to the protest because it was an “natural motion of the final class”, Abhishek Agnihotri, one of many protesters who had sought permission from the Delhi Police, stated the protest was supposed to “preserve going”.
Mr. Dubey posted on X late on Friday night time {that a} group of protesters have been marching in the direction of Raj Ghat after being faraway from Jantar Mantar. In a video message, he stated the protesters would display at Raj Ghat and return to Jantar Mantar if the police take away them from there as properly.
Revealed – August 21, 2026 05:35 pm IST
