A day after activist Sonam Wangchuk’s 20-day hunger strike was disrupted by police, activities at the protest site in Jantar Mantar appeared to have intensified on Sunday, with many protesters arriving from outside the capital to join the June 20 march to Parliament.Supporters from other states had begun arriving on Saturday, and many of them planned to spend Sunday night at Jantar Mantar. Some others said they had shown up to mark their presence and show solidarity with the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) for a few hours.For some hours after Wangchuk was taken away to Safdarjung hospital, the stage at the protest site was empty. It then began to fill again, as the spotlight shifted to Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the activist platform, who announced he was going on a fast himself to carry on Wangchuk’s protest.ALSO READ | No private hospital transfer for Sonam Wangchuk as court upholds forcible removalA picture of Wangchuk was put on a white bed along with flowers to symbolically mark his presence at the site.Tejrao Tadhe, a 63-year-old retired government ITI instructor from Akola, Maharashtra, was present at the site, filming a group of students raising slogans on his mobile phone. He then made his way to the heart of the crowd at the protest, periodically adjusting the bag hanging from his shoulder. Tejrao Tadhe, a 63-year-old retired government ITI instructor from Akola, Maharashtra, was present at the site, filming a group of students raising slogans on his mobile phone. (Express Photo by Drishi Jain)Tadhe said he had reached Delhi on Sunday morning and come straight to Jantar Mantar, where he planned to camp overnight, and then join the CJP’s proposed march to Parliament to demand the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The CJP holds Pradhan responsible for the leak of the May 3 NEET-UG question paper, which caused anxiety and distress among a large number of young people.ALSO READ | ‘Security drill’, phone jammer and a white curtain: How Sonam Wangchuk was removed“All my life I have been surrounded by bright students, I know their difficulties. I’m here for them and for Wangchuk. I want to ask the government, ‘till when will you fight with the students, and what benefit will you derive from doing so?’ These students are asking for only the system to be changed, they are not asking for a (medical college) seat from you,” Tadhe said.Story continues below this ad“The students sitting on a hunger strike are only asking for this one thing. Not everyone can go to the US to study, the government should support the talented students here.”Asked if he believed his presence at Jantar Mantar would change anything, he said: “If my being here boosts the students, I will remain here.”Twenty-two-year-old Ashutosh Mishra said he had taken a bus from Kanpur to arrive in Delhi for the march. At 11.30 am, Mishra was at Jantar Mantar with a small suitcase, waiting for a friend to arrive from Noida.Mishra said he was actually en route to Mumbai, but he could not bear to not participate in the protest. “I have to join work on Monday in Mumbai, so I will not be able to participate in the march on July 20, but I wanted to show my solidarity today. I will go to Mumbai from Delhi,” he said.Story continues below this ad Ashutosh Mishra (L) and Aryan Gupta at Jantar Mantar. (Express Photo by Drishti Jain)Taking the detour via Delhi was personally important for him, Mishra said. “I had prepared for and written the SSC Mains exam in 2025. But it was mismanaged. After that, a series of government competitive exam papers were leaked, including police exams for which my friends in Kanpur applied. No investigations are done, and there is no accountability. That is why I want to register my participation here. The protests here are following Gandhian methods,” he said.Mishra’s friend Aryan Gupta (23) said he is a software engineer, and has been waiting for change in the country’s education system for years. “I thought that this was important because this is the first protest that I have seen, which was birthed online,” he said.Gupta said he had called some friends to join the march with him on Monday. Some would come, but others were wary of the high costs that the state may extract for their participation in the protest, he said.“I have fought with my parents to come here. But there are people who are not coming. They don’t know our history of struggles,” he said. Gupta said he planned to stay overnight at Jantar Mantar.Story continues below this adAdvocate Ramanand Sagar (34) and Shriti Sagar (27), who are married, took an overnight train from Allahabad and reached the protest site after leaving their bags at the cloak room at the railway station. They had intended to join the march to Parliament, and were more fuelled to make the journey after police took Wangchuk away, they said. Advocate Ramanand Sagar (34) and Shriti Sagar (27), who are married, took an overnight train from Allahabad and reached the protest site after leaving their bags at the cloak room at the railway station (Express Photo by Drishti Jain)“I have seen the Anna Hazare andolan (for the Lokpal Bill in 2011), Ramanand Sagar said. “This is a historic movement of the youth. I am happy that the youth of this country have awakened. Many of us from Allahabad will be marching tomorrow morning, and I hope we are not stopped by police. I also hope that Dharmendra Pradhan resigns,” he said.Shriti, who said she had come to Delhi for the first time, said that it was important to ensure that change was brought about, and that future generations did not have to lead similar protests. “Hamare aane waale generations yahaan par na khade hon, bas,” she said.It was also important to ensure that religion was not used to divide the protesters, Shriti said. She was holding a poster that said, “Remove the lenses of religion, all of India is in danger.”