All the king's horses, all the king's men, arrayed to keep people from speaking out, even symbolically, against the murders in UP. Easily 300+ men and women in unifom here. 
The paranoia is amazing. Aap kaun ho? Patrakar hoon. Card hai aapke paas? Leke nahin aaya. Card ke bina aap yeh sab saaman isthemaal karke video nahin le sakthe.
The "samaan" is a DJI Osmo Pocket attached to my phone. 🤔
The "samaan" is a DJI Osmo Pocket attached to my phone. 🤔
A few protestors trickle in, singly. Come together. Trigger media scrum. Cops rush in, surround them, herd them into a bus and off it goes. Meanwhile, cops donning riot gear.
Cops stowing their bags, one of them not sure it is a safe place. "Arre koi nahin lega bhai", says the sardar reassuringly. I mean, there are only about five cops per civilian here just now so of course the concern for their property is legit. 😏
"Mediawalon se request hai zara jagah deejiye, arrest karnewalon ko leke jaane ke liye".
Students/young protestors arriving in twos and threes and immediately being carted away. Some cops playing spotters, others the enforcers.
A school bus filled with kids slowing down in front of UP Bhavan because of traffic. The kids set up a cheer, or jeer, hard to tell. Cops yelling at the driver to get the bus gone. This is insane - an entire state machinery in a state of advanced paranoia.
Five students, including two young girls, walk oh so casually towards UP Bhavan on the other side of the road. Close to 40 cops race across, theu the traffic, surrounds them. The media forms a scrum around the cops. They cross, jeep pulls up, they are carted away.
Being a media person apparently de-sensitizes, dehumanises you. Two young boys just turned up on the opposite side of the road. Cops races across, physically lifted them up and carted them to a jeep. One boy was lifted by his left leg and right arm. +
Photographer unable to get to the scene because he is on the wrong side tuens to his colleague and goes "Kya miss hai yaar, murghi ki tharaf lekejaa raha tha"
A boy was just crossing the road. Alone. Cops surround him and take him away. Earlier, a cop told me Section 144 is in force. So? This boy was solo. The only people violating 144 are the media, and the cops.
Vignettes.
The cops you see innthese frames are approx 1/5th of the total presence.
Think of the manpower, the resources, deployed so no one will stand in front of UP Bhavan and say Bisht has blood on his hands.
The cops you see innthese frames are approx 1/5th of the total presence.
Think of the manpower, the resources, deployed so no one will stand in front of UP Bhavan and say Bisht has blood on his hands.
This, now - three Jamia students, four times as many cops, twice that many media cameras, one jeep, gone.
They came knowing their presence here wouldn't last a couple of minutes.
And still they came.
They came knowing their presence here wouldn't last a couple of minutes.
And still they came.
Phone running out of juice. Back to old tech - notebook and pen. For thoughts, for later.
