An Open Letter from Concerned Citizens to the Police and Security Forces at Jantar Mantar, Delhi on July 20, 2026
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As we watched the bones shatter, the skin rupture, the blood ooze and bodies fall, we wondered whether you, holding up those lathis and bringing them down on the young people with such ferocity, were in your senses.
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An open letter to the police and security forces who were at the Jantar Mantar on Jul 20, 2026 and brutally attacked protesters, has been written in 16 languages by over 1800 concerned citizens across the country, including students, teachers, parents of students, artists, social workers, homemakers, doctors, engineers, lawyers, software professionals, activists, traders, journalists and others. The signatories include Ratna Pathak Shah, Naseeruddin Shah, Kavitha Lankesh, Shabnam Hashmi, Vanita Mukherjee, Radha Kumar, Aditya Nigam, Jayati Ghosh, J Devika, Anuradha Kapoor, Mohan Rao, Keval Arora, Meera Sanghamitra, Flavia Agnes, Sudha Bharadwaj, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Nisha Abdulla, Sumantra Ghosal, Nimi Ravindran, Cynthia Stephen, Sudha N, Kirtana Kumar, Devashish Makhija, Anita Cheria, Laxmi Murthy, Nisha Gulur, Bela Bhatia, Pankaj Rishi Kumar, Madhu Bhushan, Irawati Karnik, Arundhati Ghosh and so many others across various professions. The signatories condemn the police for violently attacking the peaceful student protesters urging them to recognize that the demand of the protesters seeking fair and corruption-free education impacts the lives of the children of the police as well. It calls on the police to refuse unethical orders, citing historical and global examples of security forces who chose conscience over command. Finally, it appeals to the officers' humanity and shared struggles, asking them to protect citizens' rights rather than serve as tools of state repression.
Letters should start with a ‘dear’. But how can we write that for you after having witnessed the videos of your brutal attack on the student protesters at Jantar Mantar?
As we watched the bones shatter, the skin rupture, the blood ooze and bodies fall, we wondered whether you, holding up those lathis and bringing them down on the young people with such ferocity, were in your senses.
Because if you were, how could you not see the faces of your own brothers, sisters, and children among the thousands who had gathered from across the length and breadth of this country at its capital seeking justice, demanding an education free of corruption and a future free of uncertainties!
Video after video showed us how right next to you men in plain clothes wielded state sanctioned lathis, threw stones and beat up protesters till children as young as ten or eleven were screaming in pain. And you, who have taken oath to protect this country’s citizens, went on a rampage on peaceful demonstrators, shattering both your promise and our trust.
We know you will say you were taking orders, you were doing your job.
But you must know that taking orders and doing your job are not always the same thing. World over, time and again, State security authorities have refused to take up arms against citizen protesters. One finds examples in Romania in 1989 when Minister of Defence Vasile Milea refused dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu's direct order to open fire on protesters in Bucharest; across Tunisia and Egypt in 2011, during the Arab Springs; in Ukraine in 2014, during the Euromaidan protests, the regional police forces declared their allegiance to the protesters and refused to deploy to Kyiv to attack demonstrators; and in the USA, in Camden and Atlanta, the police laid down their riot gear in front of demonstrators of the 2020 George Floyd protests.
We have our own history too; in 1930 during the Salt Satyagraha, when the Garhwal Rifles refused an order from British commanders to open fire on unarmed, nonviolent civilian protesters in Peshawar, led by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan.
That is your legacy. When protesters are fighting for justice you can refuse orders that stop you from doing your job – which is to protect this country’s citizens.
Do you think those who give you orders care for your children or their education?
Don’t you know their own kids are all studying in foreign countries and many of them will never come back here?
Don’t you see how you are a mere pawn in the hands of a vile and vicious State that will not allow any voice of resistance that calls out its crimes, its atrocities?
You, like us, come from difficult homes. You have worked hard, got jobs, and are still struggling to make ends meet. Like us, nothing came to you on a silver platter like they do for those who give you orders. And you are smart enough to know and understand all of this.
So, obviously, we were angry, disappointed and hurt to see that you cared so little about your own people who were fighting for the future of your own children. We feel for your children too, who will now have to live with the truth that their parents brutalised someone exactly like them, someone merely asking for their rights as a citizen of this democracy.
We write this letter to you making a demand on your heart and your conscience.
Next time an order like this comes to you to savagely attack innocent, peaceful protesters, you must stop and think, and you must refuse to lift your lathi. If you do this together, all of the hundreds of you who are deployed, the State too will get a message. That they cannot send you as a buffer when they have miserably failed their duties and accountabilities.
Because when they fail citizens they fail you too, who, above all, are citizens of this country. They also fail your children and their future. Come, if you cannot join our protests, at least protect our right to do so.
1802 SIGNATURES FOROPEN LETTER TO POLICE AT JANTAR MANTAR, JUL 20, 2026 | ||
Name | Profession/ Association | Location |
Vanita Mukherjee | All India Feminist Alliance |
|
Jayati Ghosh | Economist | New Delhi |
J Devika | Feminist historian | Thiruvananthapuram |
Arundhati Ghosh | Independent Cultural Consultant | Bangalore |
Ratna Pathak Shah | Actor | Mumbai |
Anuradha Kapoor | Feminist Activist |
|
Naseeruddin Shah | Actor | Mumbai |
Prof.Mohan Rao | Bahutva Karnataka | Bangalore |
Sumantra Ghosal | Filmmaker | Mumbai |
Nisha Abdulla | Artist and Educator | Bangalore |
Sudha N | Bahutva Karnataka | Bengaluru |
Kirtana Kumar | Artist | Bangalore |
Aditya Nigam | Academic | Delhi |
Laxmi Murthy | Journalist | Bengaluru |
Nisha Gulur | Human rights activist | Bengaluru |
Bela Bhatia | Lawyer | Dantewada, Chhattisgarh |
Pankaj rishi kumar | Filmmaker | Mumbai |
Madhu Bhushan | A concerned citizen and women’s rights activist | Bangalore |
Irawati Karnik | Screenwriter, Playwright, Teacher | Mumbai |
Keval Arora | Retired college teacher | New Delhi |
Meera Sanghamitra | Feminist Activist | Hyderabad |
Flavia Agnes | Advocate | Mumbai |
Sudha Bharadwaj | Lawyer | Mumbai |
Kavitha Lankesh | Director | Bangalore |
Shabnam Hashmi | Independent Social Activist | Delhi |
Shuddhabrata Sengupta | Artist | Delhi |
Aravind | Product Manager | Bengaluru |
Pranjali Tripathi | Researcher | Jaipur |
Chayanika Shah | Retired Lecturer | Mumbai |
Pikky Atri | Scientist | Netherlands |
Radha Kumar | Writer | Delhi |
Alia Omer | Participant of protest | Bangalore |
Swati Shah | Researcher |
|
Mahasweta Samajdar | Editor | Kolkata |
Mimi Munshi | Teacher | Delhi NCR |
Nimi Ravindran | Artist | Bangalore |
Kavita Sarin | Citizen of india | New Delhi |
Mitali Biswas | Independent Filmmaker & Activist |
|
Varna | Economist | New Delhi |
Tanvi Bhakta | Software Engineer | Bengaluru |
P. Rohini Rajasekaran | Multidisciplinary Artist | Children’s Curriculum Developer | Bangalore |
Neharika Mahajan | Development Professional | Delhi |
Mohammed Hayyan | SIO Karnataka | Bengaluru, Karnataka |
Indumathi | Educationist |
|
Rohan DSouza | Educator | Bangalore |
Jovie | Consultant |
|
Pragya Chaube | Professor, UPES University |
|
Kausik Ray | Engineer | Bangalore |
Mamata Dash | Activist | New Delhi |
Kurian | Student- AISA | Kerala |
Lokesh Naik | Political activist | Bengaluru |
Sheshagiri K M Rao | Education | Bangalore |
Nidhi Pasi | Independent researcher | New Delhi |
Rev. Immanuel Nehemiah | Priest | Bangalore |
Arunesh | Citizen | Bengaluru |
Mohua Chinappa | Writer | Bangalore |
Yashaswini SR | Film maker | Bangalore |
Abhishek H. | Independent Artist |
|
Samrat Som | Creative Strategist | Bangalore |
Umairuddin | Engineer | Ksa |
Arushi Thapar | Researcher | Bangalore |
Shoba Mathai | IT | Bangalore |
Anuradha Kapoor | Feminist Activist |
|
Sagari R Ramdas | Food Sovereignty Alliance | Hyderabad |
Anam Tasneem | Data researcher | Bangalore |
Ria Dantewau | Educator |
|
Noor Delvi | Counsellor | Bangalore |
Asma Menon | Artist | Chennai |
Reja Tasneem | Doctor |
|
T.K.Chttopadhyay | Retired |
|
Pratibha Nair | Grant Administrator/USIEF | New Delhi |
Geeta K | Concerned Citizen | Mumbai |
Gloria | Advertising | Bangalore |
Chaitanya S | Food catering Business | Mumbai |
Dhruva Sen | Retired corporate executive | Bangalore |
Usha rao | Farmer |
|
Sharad Patil | Businessman | Belgaum |
Gururaj C | Teacher | Bengaluru |
Ashley Tellis | Academic, Journalist, Editor | Chennai |
Sunil | Business | Belgaum |
Chandan Savio Gomes | Filmmaker & Visual Artist |
|
Rajashree Raju | Researcher | Frankfurt, Germany |
Amala Bonnie | University of Leeds |
|
Remadevi .L | Kerala Mahila Samakhya Society | Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala |
Sridhar R | Environmentalist | Thiruvananthapuram |
Prakriti | Writer | Gurgaon |
Mileena | Phd Candidate | New Delhi |
Sasikumar V | Writer, Documentary film maker | Trivandrum |
Mira Bakhru | Retd prof IIMB ! | Bangalore |
Vaibhav Bhardwaj | Artist | Gurgaon |
Rahil | Agent | Bangalore |
Sampurna Baral | Student | Bangalore |
Niranjanaradhya V P | People’s Alliance for Fundamental Right to Education | Bangalore-Karnataka |
Utkarsh | Teacher | Bangalore |
Arathi MR | Journalist | Kerala |
Snigdha | Lawyer | Delhi |
Latha | Doctor | Kerala |
Rituparna | Student | Kerala/Delhi |
Shajar khan | Education Activist | Trivandram, Kerala |
Navoneel Ray | Doctoral Candidate, Centre For Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. | New Delhi |
Shiwani Kaushal | Research Scholar | Indore |
Subrat Kumar Sahu | Independent Filmmaker | New Delhi |
Poonam Batra | Professor (Rtd) Delhi University | Delhi |
Dr. Varsha Basheer | Educator | Trivandrum |
Dr Azeez Tharuvana | Assistant Professor | Calicut |
Revathi Siva Kumar | Journalist | Bengaluru |
Vinod Vyasulu | retired economist | Bangalore |
Shalini | Student | Bengaluru (North) |
Jonna | Marketing | Bangalore |
geeta sahu | Farming | Belgaum |
Pallavi | Marketing Consultant – Independent | New Delhi |
Siddharth Jha | Political Consultant | New Delhi |
Apoorva | Lawyer | Tumkur, Karnataka |
Shivangi | Communications and content | Bangalore |
Dr. Percy Arfeen-Wegner | Lecturer & Postdoctoral Researcher | Düsseldorf, Germany |
Kailash Anerao | Chartered Accountant | Thane |
Vishnupriyaa PS | PhD Student | Germany |
G Ushakumari | Retired Professor | kodungallur |
Padmavati | Actor, Director | Bengaluru |
Krishna | Academician | Greater Noida, UP |
Thanuja Bhattathiri | Writer | Kochi |
Vijaya | Journalist and litarary critic | Bangalore |
Zaibu | Teacher | Mangalore |
Evy Mehzabeen | Senior Research Associate | New Delhi |
Shanthi Sudersanam | Retired | Thane West Maharashtra |
Gautam Sen | Retired | South Delhi |
B Suresha | Playwright / Film maker | Bengaluru – 560070 |
Siddhartha Samajdar | IT | Kolkata |
Janardhana Gungurumale | Self employ | Shivamogga |
Chatura Rao | Writer and teacher | Bangalore |
Azeem | Profession | Bangalore |
Swapnil | Chemical Trading | Thane |
Cynthia D’Souza | Housewife | Bandra , Mumbai |
Kalyani | Social worker | New Delhi |
Sunitha | NA | Bangalore |
DILIP | Rtd Civil Servent | Kerala |
Abhijit Sengupta | IAS Retd | Bangalore |
Indrani | Teachet | Hyderabad |
Riaz Razak | Entrepreneur | Kerala |
Tony | Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha | Ranchi |
Urmila Ramakrishna | Teacher | Mumbai |
Rakesh bisht | Student | Delhi ncr |
Jayachandran | pensioner | Trivandrum |
Ayana Krishna D | PhD Scholar | Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala |
Namrata | Researcher | Bangalore |
Nalini | Editor | Gurgaon |
Preeti Mehra | Journalist | Chennai |
George Varghese | Farmer | Sirsi |
GANESH KUMAR B | JCSSO | KOLLAM |
Dr Nisrin Readymadewala | Doctor | Mumbai |
Ajit Bhaskaran | Educator | Chennai |
Dr.Meenakshi Mohite | Physiotherapist | Kalyan |
Andre Morris | Business | Mumbai |
Raghunandana | Kannada poet, playwright, stage director | Bengaluru |
Shraddha | Teacher | Bengaluru |
Sheena Hashim | Teacher | Kollam |
Geetha | Researchers | India |
Dickens Leonard | Academic | New Delhi |
Sunayana Naha | Telecom | Mumbai |
Nisar Sikander | Retired | Mumbai |
Vimala.k.s | Activist | Bangalore |
Anurag Arora | Engineer | Delhi |
Sandeep Kumar kushwaha | Research Scholar | Bihar , Bodh Gaya, Central university of south Bihar |
JP Singh | B2B Sales Consultant and Orgainsation Culture. consultant |
|
Prutha Honrao | Unemployed | Mumbai |
Karen Gabriel | St Stephen’s College | Delhi |
Saritha K V | Freelance Journalist | Calicut |
Hari | Health professional | New Delhi |
Shibu D S | Bank Officer (Retired) | Trivandrum |
N Sawant | Doctor |
|
N Sukumar | Professor, Delhi University | Delhi |
R. Rajagopal | Former journalist | Kolkata |
Anna S | Aspirant | Kerala |
Tara Kini | Education Consultant | Bangalore |
Merlyn Merwin Dsa | Retired | Mumbai |
Mazharul Haque | PhD student of CU |
|
Rita Manchanda | Author and Researcher | Delhi |
Rosita Sequeira | Housewife |
|
Vandana Suri | Feminist | Bangalore |
Prof C Lakshmanan | Professor | Chennai |
Vaishali Shirodkar | Doctor | Mumbai |
K Uma | Water management consultant |
|
Ananth | Student | Bangalore |
Kishore | Software Engineer | Chennai |
Neet Suri | Student | Bangalore |
Saaya | Student | Kerala |
Geetha | Teacher | Bangalore |
Fathima Swaliha | Student | Kerala |
Priya Hariharan | Home maker |
|
Abraham Samuel | Development worker | Pune |
Shalini sharma | Mental health | Karnataka |
Minha Swaliha | Student | Kerala |
Indira Bharadwaj | Mental health counsellor | Bangalore |
Jibraan Mansoor | Lecturer | Delhi |
Ilisha | Psychologist | Bangalore |
Santhosh | Artist | Kerala |
Isra Swaliha | Student | Kerala |
Sheena Jain | Academic | New Delhi |
Senthil | Designer | Bengaluru |
Gayathri G A | Student | Kollam Kerala |
Narayan | I agree |
|
Vidya Ramachandran | Retired | Bengaluru |
Vidya Das Arora | Academic. Delhi University. Retired | Noida. U.P. |
satarupa | Scholar/Curator | Delhi |
Anita | Teacher | Chennai |
Anand Kumar | Social scientist | Goa |
S M | Asst Prof | Mumbai |
Ramesh Dixit | Academician, Professor (retired) | Lucknow |