Wangchuk and CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke have received support from most major opposition parties, farmer leaders, activists and celebrities, including Bollywood actors.

The government did not interact with the protesters until Monday, when Health Minister JP Nadda met some CJP leaders to listen to their demands.

The meeting took place against the backdrop of tens of thousands of people arriving from across the country to take part in the CJP’s call to march towards Parliament on the opening day of the monsoon session.

Nadda, who is also a senior leader of the ruling BJP, said, “The meeting took place in a cordial atmosphere. I have asked all the protesters to end their sit-in and help the administration restore normalcy.”

CJP spokesperson Saurav Das said the group’s 10-minute meeting with Nadda ended with a promise that the government would look into the matter, but without concrete guarantees. Another CJP leader, Ashutosh Ranka, dismissed the four-hour wait for the meeting as “a waste of time”.

At one point on Monday afternoon, it looked like the CJP might be willing to call off its protest after its meeting.

But their stance appeared to harden after internet services, apparently blocked in the area throughout the day, were restored, revealing the extent of the violence.

During the day, I watched protesters carry injured people to Jantar Mantar, including a young man bleeding profusely from a head wound while volunteer doctors bandaged him, and another student with a broken leg.

Around the time the protesters were meeting Nadda, police and paramilitary forces moved in to clear Jantar Mantar. Among them were plainclothes officers, many with their faces covered, who joined uniformed police in chasing protesters and beating them with clubs.

An announcement repeated over loudspeakers warned protesters to “leave now, this protest is over.”