New Delhi turned into a fortress on Friday as thousands of security personnel fanned out across Connaught Place ahead of the Cockroach Janta Party's planned "Lehra Do Tiranga" march, a flag-waving demonstration that has snowballed into a major confrontation between the protesters, the administration and the capital's trading community. The march, called by CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke for 5 pm at Central Park, went ahead under the shadow of prohibitory orders, a sealed park and a Supreme Court that declined to intervene urgently — while expressing hope that "better sense" would prevail on all sides.
The day began with an extraordinary security blanket. More than 6,000 Delhi Police personnel and 220 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces were deployed across the New Delhi area, with barricades, checkpoints and water cannons positioned at key intersections around Connaught Place. Prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) remained in force across Connaught Place and adjoining areas, banning assemblies of five or more people. By morning, the usually bustling commercial hub wore a deserted look, with shuttered shops and empty plazas where office-goers and shoppers would normally crowd.
At the heart of the standoff is Central Park itself. The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) ordered the park shut for October 16 and 17, citing administrative reasons — a decision the march organisers see as a targeted move to deny them their chosen venue. Delhi Police has been categorical that the march has no permission, and on the eve of the event served a formal notice on Dipke barring him from holding the protest.
The controversy reached the Supreme Court on Friday morning, when a plea challenging the NDMC's park-closure order was mentioned for urgent hearing. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi declined to take it up urgently, but its observations framed the entire dispute. The court said it hoped "better sense will prevail" among everyone involved, and dwelt at length on the competing interests at play during the festive season.
"Someone wants to protest, someone wants to sell mungfali (peanuts), someone wants law and order. All these are related," Justice Bagchi observed, underlining that the right to protest must be weighed against the livelihoods of small shopkeepers and the administration's duty to maintain order. The bench noted that traders and market associations in Connaught Place had themselves sought protection for their establishments, fearing disruption and losses during one of the year's most important shopping periods. The plea's lawyer told the court that the NDMC had issued the closure directions late on Thursday night, effectively halting trade in the area.
The court did not shut the door entirely. It indicated that the plea could be listed for a detailed hearing on October 26 or 27, and Justice Bagchi added a pointed warning: if businesses ended up suffering losses because of the restrictions, the court would exercise its constitutional powers. "If business is harmed, we will exercise our powers under constitutional jurisdiction. When that time comes, we will deal with the situation," he said.
For its part, Delhi Police has tried to carve a middle path. While urging the public not to join the proposed gathering, the police offered to facilitate a symbolic flag-waving event involving just 11 people at a suitable location. It also pointed organisers toward designated protest venues — Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground and the CBD Ground — where demonstrations can be held after obtaining permission. These sites gained prominence after Jantar Mantar lost its status as a designated protest location.
Dipke, however, has shown no sign of backing down. Late on Thursday night he claimed that Delhi Police might detain him before the march and that he was under watch. "If we have to go to jail for waving the tricolour, we are ready for it," he said, questioning why the authorities objected to a march centred on the national flag. "Why does Delhi Police have a problem with waving the Tiranga?" he asked. On Friday, police personnel were seen arriving at his residence as part of preventive measures.
The proposed gathering is the latest flashpoint in the CJP's campaign against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Dipke has alleged that two party members, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were jailed merely for unfurling the Tricolour. The two were sent to five days of judicial custody for allegedly violating their peace bonds and trespassing into Jantar Mantar after police withdrew the venue's protest-site status. Addressing supporters earlier, Dipke had called on workers across the country to carry the tricolour, declaring: "If the vote is saved, democracy will be saved. If democracy is saved, the nation will be saved."
The build-up has already seen legal and street-level friction. On Thursday, the Delhi High Court recorded an assurance from the additional solicitor general that police had taken steps to regulate the CJP's activities and would act strictly within the law. That assurance came in response to a petition by Anil Kumar Gupta, a street vendor at Palika Bazar, who feared the gathering would choke roads, footpaths and Metro station entrances and directly hit the earnings of vendors like him.
The protests have also drawn national attention for their treatment of the press. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that at least 43 journalists were temporarily detained — and some assaulted — while covering anti-CEC demonstrations in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Pune and Mumbai on October 10 and 11. The CPJ said authorities seized at least five phones, pressured one journalist to delete footage, and transported some detainees to locations up to 65 km away. Journalist Rana Ayyub told the CPJ that police beat her with a baton, while The Caravan's Ryan Thomas said he was struck on the head and slapped. The detentions continued, the CPJ noted, even after the Supreme Court secured assurances on October 11 that journalists would not be impeded. Delhi Police did not respond to the CPJ's request for comment.
Meanwhile, the agitation is not confined to the capital. In Mumbai, members of the GenZ outfit joined a CJP Tiranga rally at Azad Maidan on Friday morning, signalling that the campaign's footprint is widening beyond Delhi.
As the 5 pm hour approached, the central question remained unanswered: would the march materialise in defiance of the prohibitory orders, or would the combination of the sealed park, the massive deployment and the court's moral nudge defuse the confrontation? What is clear is that the episode has become a three-way test — of the organisers' resolve, of the administration's ability to hold the line on public order without overreach, and of the traders' anxieties in a festive season when every day of business counts. The Supreme Court's October 26-27 hearing will revisit the legality of the park closure, but the political temperature around the Tiranga march is unlikely to cool before then.
(Reporting based on The Hindu, Hindustan Times, Onmanorama and Siasat.)