New Delhi: The white-collar professionals who had been following and supporting the students’ movement between client calls and meetings, turned up in large numbers Saturday, using their day off to stand in solidarity with the movement.Coincidentally, the day the “corporate majdoors” — a term widely used on social media — came, was also the day the protest ended.Jagjeet Sodhi, a digital marketing professional from Noida, stood patiently in the queue outside the protest site. “I was hoping to come here last night but couldn’t. For days, this was the dinner-table conversation between my wife and me, so today we’re here to witness it,” he said.For the volunteers, the surge in footfall meant another mammoth exercise, one they were happy to take on.
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As they formed human chains to regulate the crowd and ensure people could move safely, one volunteer said, “We’re doing our best to make sure nobody gets hurt and that people can move around safely in this crowd.”There was an air of festiveness after Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation announcement came on X. Many joked that the arrival of the corporate workforce had turned out to be the protest’s “lucky charm”. Others quipped that the movement had simply been waiting for its own version of the Avengers.Mansi Yadav (28), a psychologist from Lucknow, who had deliberately planned her weekend around the protest, said: “Before reaching Delhi at 6 am today, I’d never even seen a typical Jantar Mantar protest. But on the very day I arrived, news of the minister’s resignation broke. What a coincidence!”For many parents, the weekend also offered an opportunity to bring their children to the protest and show them what the students had been fighting for — something several described as a lesson in “healthy democracy.”“I was heartbroken the day the police lathicharged the students who were protesting peacefully. That’s when I decided to bring my son here and stand with these children,” a parent said.The July 20 police action proved to be a turning point for others too. “For days, I watched the protest grow. I saw CJP’s spokespersons speaking out, and Sonam Wangchuk’s hunger strike as well as his forced removal, before going to bed. But the day my feed was flooded with videos of students being beaten up by the police, something broke inside me. It felt as though my own child had been beaten up on the road,” said Sangeeta Seth, a software engineer from Karnal, who now lives in Ghaziabad.Several in the crowd said they had not participated in a mass protest since the 2012 Nirbhaya movement. Ajay Dahiya (35), who had attended the July 20 Sansad March, returned to Jantar Mantar Saturday with his colleagues. “They were worried about me after learning that I was present during the march, so today they came along,” he said.The day’s celebrations also gave rise to another running joke, that those visiting Jantar Mantar for the first time had brought the minister’s resignation with them. Neeraj Sangwan (24), who had been in Delhi for the past three days, was joined on Saturday by his brother Kamal (29), a market analyst.“You should’ve come a few days earlier. He would’ve resigned sooner,” Neeraj told Kamal. “I should’ve bought a lottery ticket today,” Kamal laughed, taking in his first-ever visit to the protest site.
