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These kids have courage: Parents rally behind students at Jantar Mantar
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New DelhiJul 25, 2026 02:50 PM IST A 12-year-old girl from West Bengal kept turning around to check that she had not lost sight of her father in the crowd.As dawn settled over Jantar Mantar on Saturday, the protest site swelled with a fresh rush of weekend arrivals. Students streamed in with backpacks, families joined in and sat on the mats already spread across the ground, and new posters were unfurled, while others staked out corners under tarpaulin sheets to prepare for the day ahead. With delivery riders physically barred by Delhi Police, food through the morning continued to be bulk‑ordered from Connaught Place and ferried in by auto‑rickshaws.The site, which drew around 5,000 people by morning, had taken on the character of a self-organised community. And while the protest has been led largely by Gen Z, at least 1,000 people in the gathering were from an older generation: parents, professionals, retired personnel and families who had come from across the country to stand with the young protesters. Some to stand with their children and others to stand in solidarity with a generation they said had found the courage to challenge the government. A 12-year-old girl from West Bengal kept turning around to check that she had not lost sight of her father in the crowd. Her parents had accompanied her after she insisted on coming to the protest. A few metres away, two retired Air Force personnel from Ghaziabad stood among the students. “I came here for these students. They are my kids,” said one of them. “If they can compel Modi to release a video at 12 in the night. Inn bacchon mein dum toh hein. (These children are courageous.)” For Neeta, 45, an environmental scientist from Gurugram, the young protesters served as a stark reminder of “the failures of her own generation.” She had been at the protest on June 20, when she said she was subjected to tear gas, and had returned on Saturday. “Our generation did nothing. We just did an MBA and minted money. This generation has a brain of its own,” she said. What struck her most, she said, was the sense of positivity at the protest. “From demonetisation to Ram Mandir chanda chori to inflation, everything is being raised here,” she said. A father-daughter duo had also travelled from Indore to the protest site. Priyank, a surgeon in his 40s, said his daughter, a medical student in Rishikesh, was also participating in the protests.Story continues below this ad He said the movement had broken what he saw as a long-standing fear of the government. “The fear of the government and Modi has been removed. This government has silenced people for quite a long time now,” he said. He said he was worried about the consequences his daughter could face for participating in the protest. But that concern, he added, had not made him afraid. “This is for the right cause,” he said. A family from West Bengal had travelled to Jantar Mantar on Saturday, with their 12-year-old daughter insisting on seeing the protest for herself. Keshav said his daughter had wanted to come to the protest alone. They accompanied her instead. Standing near the stage, Keshav kept an eye on her as she repeatedly turned around to make sure she had not lost sight of him in the crowd.Story continues below this ad “There needs to be a solution. I have been wondering for quite some days what the solution is. I think the answer I have come to is resignation. Then systemic reforms,” he said. He said he was worried about the consequences of bringing his daughter to the protest. His wife stood beside him, holding their daughter’s hand tightly as the crowd moved around them. Tabshir Shams covers health for The Indian Express. He holds a Master's degree in International Relations from South Asian University. Before joining The Indian Express, he interned at The Hindu from December 2025 to June 2026, where he assisted in the research and editing of a book on delimitation published by The Hindu Group Publications. During this time,
As the nation remains gripped by the ongoing student protests demanding education reforms, several celebrities have come forward over the past few days to express solidarity with the demonstrators. Prominent Bollywood names including Salman Khan, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, Varun Dhawan, Ratna Pathak Shah and Naseeruddin Shah have all voiced their support. The latest to weigh in is Aamir Khan’s daughter, Ira Khan, who shared her thoughts on the issue in a six-minute-long video posted on Instagram. Aamir Khan has maintained silence on the ongoing CJP protests.Sharing the video, Ira admitted that she had consciously maintained a distance from the protests as consuming news often leaves her emotionally overwhelmed. In the caption, she wrote, “I see that being able to, being able to afford to… having the option at all to look away… is a privilege. I’m figuring out what my most helpful role can be that aligns with my values and that’s what I’ll do. Be safe.”Beginning her video, Ira addressed the question many had been asking: why she had not spoken about the protests sooner. “Why am I not speaking up about the protests? It’s true that I advocate for mental health, and I ask for your attention whenever I speak on these topics. And I think that mental health is all of life. So I guess, in a way, I’ve chosen to say things and speak up about certain things. There are a couple of reasons why I haven’t, and I’m going to do my best to articulate them,” she said. Explaining her silence, Ira said she initially felt she had little to contribute to the conversation and had deliberately stayed away from distressing news coverage. “The first that comes to my mind is that I didn’t think I had anything to say that was going to add to the conversation in any meaningful manner, especially because I’m not having feelings about it. And that’s something that I do actively with all news. I usually just don’t look at it. I don’t go to my Explore page. I have not seen any videos of violence or any videos of the protests. I know that they’re happening, and I know what is happening, I think. But I don’t let it emotionally reach me because it really bothers me, and I get overwhelmed, and I start feeling really helpless.” ‘I would like to clarify that I do care’ She further explained that, instead of constantly following the news, she prefers to channel her energy into understanding how individuals can make a difference within their own capacity. “So my way of not getting overwhelmed and helpless, but still not ignoring things, is that I divert my energy and my focus, whatever I have in me, into the attempt to figure out: how can an individual person navigate the best they can with what they have in their individual capacity, outside of any system or regardless of any system? I’m not saying this is the best approach, but this is what I do. I don’t look at the news, and I don’t look at social media. I purposefully spend time and energy focusing on, regardless of the topic, regardless of the system, regardless of the kind of discrimination or unfairness or whatever I may think and feel, I shift my energy that way.” Ira also clarified that her silence should not be mistaken for indifference. Recalling how she briefly panicked after seeing a video that reportedly showed her cousin being detained during a protest, she said she realised she had unconsciously been distancing herself from the events. “My feelings still haven’t reached me. I know that I got sent one reel, and the story was that my cousin was in it. I saw the reel, and it was that she was potentially being detained at one of the protests, and I freaked out. And as soon as I realised she was safe, again, I was like, ‘Okay,’ and I went back to work. So I’m sure there are feelings, but they’re not reaching me. I did not say anything because I didn’t realize that me saying anything would make a difference. And so, if me not speaking up at this point implied in any manner that I don’t care,
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