A day after the police lathi-charged protesters of the political campaign Cockroach Janta Party and fired tear gas shells at them, the front pages of several major newspapers on Tuesday did not prominently highlight the voices of those who were injured.

Most major English and Hindi dailies, on their front pages, focused on the police crackdown on the protesters as they attempted to march to Parliament on Monday. They reported the series of events that led to the demonstration spilling onto major parts of central Delhi.

However, The Indian Express carried a story on the front page containing statements from injured protesters.

For several days, thousands of protesters had been demonstrating at the national capital’s Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan for the alleged mismanagement of competitive examinations.

The campaign had planned a march to Parliament on Monday, when the Monsoon Session began. However, while the leaders of the protests were blocked by the police from undertaking the march, some managed to march closer to Parliament and gather in other parts of central Delhi.

Scroll spoke with several protesters who said that they had been confined by the heavy security deployment. One of them also said that the police asked the demonstrators “to sit down and then started the lathi-charge”. A protester who had travelled from Uttar Pradesh told Scroll that the demonstration was peaceful until the security forces intervened.

Watch: Young protesters in Delhi face police lathi-charge and tear gas

On Tuesday, The Indian Express headlined its front page with: “Protesters storm heart of Delhi, police use lathi charge and tear gas to stop the march.”

The newspaper mentioned prominently that representatives of the Cockroach Janta Party met with Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader JP Nadda on Monday with their list of demands. Citing unidentified persons aware of the developments, The Indian Express reported that the government had not given any assurances to the representatives.

The front page of ‘The Indian Express’ on Tuesday.

Ashutosh Ranka, a spokesperson for the campaign who had met Nadda, later told the Hindustan Times that “the meeting turned out to be useless”.

“No response has come from them,” he was quoted as saying. “Next time, we will not talk to them till they come to the protest site. If they do not value our time, we also do not value theirs.”

The newspaper on Tuesday said that the “chaos on street” had echoed in the House, referring to the repeated adjournments of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

Ranka’s statement did not find a mention on the front page of the newspaper on Tuesday.

Covering the protest in the top-half of the page, the Hindustan Times focused on police’s “clash” with the demonstrators, activist Sonam Wangchuk stating that he would continue his hunger strike and Nadda’s meeting with the campaign representatives.

The front page of the ‘Hindustan Times’ on Tuesday.

The Hindu, on its front page, said that “several” persons had been injured in the crackdown on the protest. It mentioned that 38 of the injured persons were admitted to Lady Hardinge Medical College and 65 to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.

The police have claimed that 60 protesters and 118 security personnel were injured during the day.

The front page of 'The Hindu' on Tuesday.

The Times of India did not provide as much space to the protests on its front page as other leading English dailies. The newspaper’s headline said that police had “blocked” the march to Parliament and that Nadda had met representatives of the Cockroach Janta Party.

The fourth page of the newspaper was dedicated to the coverage of the protest.

The front page of ‘The Times of India’ on Tuesday.

Prominent Hindi daily Dainik Jagran said that Delhi had come to a standstill because of the protest. It also mentioned the police’s claim that the protesters threw stones at them before the information about the lathi-charge by security personnel.

The newspaper also claimed that protesters threw stones at the police from inside a building and vandalised a government office.

The front page of ‘Dainik Jagran’ on Tuesday.

Amar Ujala’s headline said that the protesters marching towards Parliament clashed with the police. It also said that the police had cleared the protest area at Jantar Mantar.

On Monday evening, the campaign resumed the protest at Jantar Mantar, stating that the demonstration would not end until Pradhan resigns from his post.

The front page of 'Amar Ujala' on Tuesday.

NBT Navbharat Times mentioned this in their front-page coverage of the protests. It also said that the Union government initiated dialogue with the Cockroach Janta Party as crowds started swelling at the protest site.

The front page of 'NBT Navbharat Times' on Tuesday.

Written by Sneha. Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

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