The Pulse | Politics | South Asia

New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar Is Not Tahrir Square, But It Can Become One

At its heart, this movement is demanding accountability, not upheaval.

Protestors gather at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, India, July 21, 2026.

It is tempting to compare the students’ protest at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar with Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the uprising that brought to an end Hosni Mubarak’s nearly 30-year rule.

The comparison, however, is only partly valid. Equating what is happening in New Delhi with Egypt’s iconic protest would be unrealistic, even if the two movements share striking similarities. In Egypt, calls to gather at Tahrir Square spread rapidly through social media, including YouTube and Facebook. Likewise, the Cockroach Janta Party, which emerged on Instagram, has used social media to mobilize thousands to assemble at Jantar Mantar and protest against the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) examination paper leak, which has fueled widespread anger among students and, according to the movement, contributed to a tragic wave of student suicides.

The objectives of the two protests, however, are fundamentally different. The protesters at Jantar Mantar are demanding accountability from the government and the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The demonstrators in Tahrir Square sought nothing less than the end of Hosni Mubarak’s three-decade authoritarian rule. Yet the deeper similarity lies elsewhere: both movements are driven by the frustration of a generation that believes its government has become unresponsive to its aspirations and grievances.

The Jantar Mantar protest is not an attempt to overthrow the state, but a determined demand that the state honor its constitutional obligations and restore young people’s faith in public institutions. It is a physical mirror of a generation’s quiet desperation, where broken promises, shrinking opportunities, and unresponsive governance are finding a collective voice.

If the Egyptians were expressing their anger against Hosni Mubarak’s three-decade rule, during which every voice of dissent was often silenced by the butt of a gun, Jantar Mantar has lifted the lid on years of frustration over misgovernance and, perhaps more importantly, what many perceive as the arrogance of the Narendra Modi government over the past 14 years.

Calls for public accountability have frequently been met with disdain. Those seeking answers on corruption, administrative failures, or misgovernance are often dismissed, insulted, or humiliated rather than engaged with. The government’s response to successive examination paper leaks has done little to restore public confidence. Beyond transferring the education secretary to another department,........

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