Delhi Police Lathicharge on Protesters at Jantar Mantar

While the CJP's Gen Z protest ended with a handshake with the union ministers, these poor tribals protesting for their Jal Jungle Zameen were simply shooed away from the protest site without even a written assurance from the government. These men and women from the tribal communities of one of the remotest and most underdeveloped parts of India are victims of the Ken Betva Project, India's first river interlinking initiative. They say they've lost their homes, their land, their access to forest resources, and the very core of their tribal identity because of this project. And it has not only stripped the tribals of their modest means of survival, but many of them have not even been given adequate compensation. Some families say they've not received enough money to build a new life elsewhere. Others say they've not received any compensation at all because of alleged corruption in the distribution of compensatory funds. For almost a month, they staged a protest India has never seen before. They lay on funeral pyres, climbed the gallows in a symbolic act of defiance and smeared mud on their faces. For nearly 20 days, this man, Amit Bhatnagar, was on a hunger strike. Many tribal women also fasted with him. But on the morning of July 19, a day after Sonam Vangchuk was forcefully hospitalized in Delhi, Amit Bhatnagar too was taken away by the police and MPs Chhatarpur and the protest…