Lathi charge
Protestors being hit mercilessly
Plain clothed police officers unleashing brute force
Nails embedded into lathis
Police officers without name tags
Your social media feed is probably full of videos like these.
They're also full of people taking sides. Some defending the police. Others condemning them.
Let's begin with one thing that should not be up for debate.
The Delhi Police, its Special Cell and the Rapid Action Force violated well-established rules governing the use of force during protests.
Those rules come from the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, earlier the CrPC, and from binding Supreme Court judgments.
Some of what you see in these videos is not just excessive. It appears plainly illegal.
In this episode, I'll explain what the law says, how it was ignored, and why thousands of young protesters ended up facing lathis and tear gas.
But this isn't just a story about police violence.
It is also a story of political and intelligence failure.
Let Me Explain
Let's start with this man.
He appears in multiple videos striking protesters with a lathi.
His name is Chaudhary Honey Dagar.
From what we have learnt, he is with the Delhi Police Special Cell.
The Special Cell investigates terrorism, organised crime and other serious offences. Its officers do work in plain clothes because they are expected to operate undercover.
So here's the obvious question.
What act of terrorism or organised crime was this protester committing?
That question deserves an answer.
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Look at these images.
Officers striking people on their heads.
Their chests.
Their arms.
Now here's what the law actually says.
Under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita or the CRPC in its earlier version, an Executive Magistrate or the officer in charge must first order the crowd to disperse.
Only if the assembly refuses to disperse can force be used.
And even then, the law is explicit.
The police must use the minimum force necessary and cause the least possible injury to people and property.
Those are not my words.
They are the law.
But there is another reason the Delhi Police should have known better.
The Supreme Court has already laid down detailed guidelines on how police should deal with protests.
And those guidelines came from an unlikely case.
Baba Ramdev.
Let's rewind to 2011.
Yes, Baba Ramdev.
Long before he became one of the BJP's biggest supporters, Ramdev was leading an anti-corruption movement against the UPA government.
He announced a fast at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan.
Thousands gathered.
Then, just after midnight on June 5, around 5,000 personnel from the Delhi Police, the CRPF and the Rapid Action Force entered the venue.
Tear gas shells were fired.
People who had been sleeping were forced to run.
Ramdev famously escaped the venue disguised in a salwar-kameez and dupatta before he was arrested a few hours later.
The incident reached the Supreme Court.
And in 2012, Justices Swatanter Kumar and BS Chauhan delivered what remains one of the most important judgments on policing protests in India.
The Court said five things.
First, peaceful protest is protected under Articles 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(b) of the Constitution.
Second, governments can regulate protests, but they cannot suppress dissent simply because it is inconvenient.
Third, restrictions must be backed by genuine necessity.
Fourth, the police must always use the least intrusive and minimum force possible.
And finally, every use of force can be tested in court on the principle of proportionality.
Now compare those principles with what you have just watched.
Let's be clear.
The Delhi Police’s duty is to stop protesters from marching into Parliament.
And they would have to use some force to do this.
Both these are understandable
That is not the issue.
The issue is how the police chose to stop them.
And perhaps more importantly...
How did the government allow the situation to deteriorate to this point?
The Cockroach Janata Party began its protest at Jantar Mantar on June 6.
Sonam Wangchuk began his fast on June 28.
On July 9, the organisation publicly announced a Parliament march.
None of this happened in secret.
The government appears to have assumed the protest would simply lose momentum.
Instead, it made a series of political miscalculations.
Removing Sonam Wangchuk from the protest site only intensified public anger.
According to The Indian Express, the police expected around 7,000 to 8,000 protesters.
Around 50,000 eventually turned up.
That points to an intelligence failure.
If the scale of the mobilisation had been assessed correctly, there was enough time for negotiations, traffic planning and crowd management.
Instead, protesters and police collided on the streets.
With internet services disrupted and communication breaking down, confusion turned into confrontation.
Once protesters reached the roads leading to Sansad Marg, they were stopped at multiple points.
With internet services disrupted and phone connectivity patchy, panic and confusion spread.
Our colleagues at Newslaundry report that every time tear gas was fired, protesters scattered, regrouped elsewhere and again tried to march towards Parliament.
But these roads, as you see, were gridlocked.
Some in the crowd retaliated.
Over the next few days, television debates will replay every image of vandalism by protesters.
But here's what should not be forgotten.
Even if violence was not one-sided, the responsibility to control a crowd lawfully rests with the police.
Not with citizens.
The police are trained for exactly this purpose.
The crowd is not.
And that brings us to the other disturbing images from that day.
Videos circulating online appear to show lathis with nails embedded in them.
Delhi Police has denied using such weapons.
But allegations of nail-studded lathis are not new. Similar accusations have surfaced against police forces in Delhi, Kerala and other states over the years.
Rarely has anyone been held accountable.
The same is true of tear gas.
The law permits its use to disperse unlawful crowds.
But police also know its risks.
Medical studies have documented the serious health effects of tear gas, particularly when used in excessive quantities.
The use of expired tear gas shells, if established, would raise serious human rights concerns.
The story of the lathi itself is equally revealing.
Much of India's crowd-control drill is inherited from the British.
During the Civil Disobedience Movement, the Madras Presidency Police Manual of 1931 codified lathi techniques designed to crush anti-colonial protests.
They included strikes to the abdomen, the neck and even the head.
Independent India kept many of those practices.
Kerala revised its lathi drill in 2019. But many states continue to follow colonial-era methods.
And Delhi has seen this before.
We saw it recently during the violence at Jamia Millia Islamia, when police entered the university library and assaulted students.
Even the National Human Rights Commission criticised the police response.
But very little followed.
Almost no officer was held accountable.
Here too, it is unlikely that anything will happen.
But that does not mean citizens should stop asking for change. Or for police reform.
Change may not come today. It may not come tomorrow. It may not even come in your lifetime.
But at least you would have asked for it.
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Produced by Akshay Lal, Megha Mukundan, script by Dhanya Rajendran, Camera by Ajay R, Edit by Nikhil Sekhar ET