Shortcut mat karna," warns Hriday Sant Samrat Baba Ratan Lal Sahu Hindustani. He wants to make sure we have got his full name. He with his flowing beard and broken spectacles is sitting on layers of old newspapers that double up as a bed. The 65-year-old from Chhattarpur in Madhya Pradesh wants the government to build what he calls the Bharateshwar Dham in his district. "Bharat Mata instructed me to tell the central government about it. India will become a vishwaguru after that," he says.
Hindustani has been on dharna at Jantar Mantar Road - the stretch between Delhi's Parliament Street and Ashoka Road that gets its name from the 18th century observatory located on it - since 2015. But he may now have to give up his spot if the Supreme Court doesn't stay the National Green Tribunal or NGT's recent order declaring gatherings on Jantar Mantar Road illegal. It has directed the Delhi government to evict all protestors.
Last year, residents of an apartment block on the same road had filed a plea with the NGT seeking their removal. They claimed protestors were adding to the sound and general pollution of the area. Hindustani is a member of the Jantar Mantar Dharna Sangharsh Samiti, a group comprising protestors, that will fight the case in Supreme Court.
Most regulars like him live in tents. In front of the tents are boards with the number of dharna days scribbled on them. The United Forum of Ex-Servicemen fighting for one rank one pension - 864 days. Followers of jailed godman Asaram Bapu - 1,493 days. Followers of another jailed godman, Ram Pal - 771 days.
Machindranath Suryavanshi, better known as Joota Maar Baba, is a reed-thin 66-year-old with a handlebar moustache. He has been protesting against corruption since 2006. "I get letters on this address from across the country," says Suryavanshi, sitting in front of a banner with his picture on it and text that reads "Akhil Bhartiya Joota Maro Andolan". All these people are now being asked to move to the Ramlila Maidan, around four kilometres from here.
Not very far from Survyavanshi, you may find 37-year-old Santosh Kumar Singh. The banner behind him reads "Main Zinda Hoon". Singh, who claims to be the former cook of actor Nana Patekar, says he was declared dead by the UP government after his cousins allegedly hatched a plan to usurp his plot of land. The government is yet to issue a declaration stating that he is alive. He has been here since January 2012 and even has a Facebook page "I Am Alive Justice" and a Twitter account @Dead ManAlive2.
But nobody grabs attention on this road better than David Raj. A former national-level fencing player, this 28-year-old has been sitting here for the last 178 days demanding total prohibition. A resident of Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, Raj claims his father, a brick factory owner, spent all his money on alcohol, leaving his family in debt. Raj has collected hundreds of liquor bottles and lined them up.
And though many may call it home, the living conditions on Jantar Mantar Road are far from adequate. Most people use mobile toilets set up by the New Delhi Municipal Corporation and eat at a gurudwara nearby. Some attend the evening prayers for Asaram Bapu and Rampal as snacks are served in the form of prasad.
"Only those in trouble come here. Governments and courts should address our problems rather than give us more trouble," says Jagjit Kaur, who has been here the last four years. Pinned on a wall in her tent is a picture of an IPS officer. Around it is a garland of shoes. She alleges the Punjab cadre officer raped her. Her demand - police should accept her FIR.
Unlike angry trade union workers, teachers, farmers and others who descend on Jantar Mantar Road once in a while with a Chalo Sansad-call and disperse after sloganeering, fiery speeches and selfies, people like Kaur, Hindustani, Singh and Suryavanshi have been fighting their battles from here, all on their own, days on end. The issues might not seem lofty enough, some too personal even, but each is earnest, dead serious. And now they are all ready for a collective fight.
Watch out!
