‘Told my father to quit police job’: Inside Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital after the Parliament march

At 1 am, the emergency building of Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital has not gone quiet. One man waits outside the ICU for his sister to regain consciousness. On the floor below, others groan with an arm or a leg in a cast. A few hours ago, all of them were marching to Parliament.

They were among more than 250 people who came to RML for treatment on Monday, according to hospital staff and a doctor on night duty. A senior doctor put the same figure to Newslaundry, adding that most took first aid and left, and that around a dozen of them were policemen. The march, called by the Cockroach Janta Party, drew thousands of students and supporters to Delhi from several states. Police blocked the route to Parliament with barricades at multiple points, and the day ended with tear gas, lathi charge and scuffles. 

Newslaundry stayed at the hospital until nearly 2 am and spoke to dozens of the injured – most of them young, many of them from outside Delhi, several of whom had not told their families where they were.

‘She is still a kid’

On the fifth floor, Bharat stood outside the ICU around 1 am with CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, who came to check on Bharat’s sister, Sakshi. She had joined the protest, fell during a stampede, and is on a ventilator.

“My sister just finished college and is studying further. She is still a child, only 21. She had gone to demand her rights. I trust she will be fine,” said Bharat, who lives in Shiv Vihar. “I drive a taxi. My sister didn’t do anything wrong. I found out she was given CPR too, but there was no movement. Still, I fully trust she will be fine.”

One of Sakshi’s friends, who lives in Chhatarpur and was with her during the protest, said, “My younger sister, Sakshi and I, the three of us went to join this protest together. Near the LIC building at Rajiv Chowk, the police suddenly attacked the protesters. There was such a lathicharge that a stampede broke out. Sakshi got crushed under it in the stampede. My younger sister was also there. I started looking for her first. It took a while before I found her. Then I found out Sakshi had been taken to RML Hospital. This was around 11:30 pm. She has severe internal injuries and her condition is extremely critical.”

‘I will never wear a uniform’

In the second-floor ward, Alfiya from Prayagraj lay shivering under a bandaged leg, groaning from the chills. Two people she met only two or three hours ago are looking after her: Pradeep, who is trying to get a blanket out of the hospital staff, and a young woman massaging her hands.

“Today my dreams have been shattered. I will do anything, but I will never wear a uniform,” Alfiya said. “I had been preparing for UPSC for about three years. Now I want to become a lawyer. I kept shouting not to hit me with the baton, but they kept hitting. I have injuries on my head and leg.”

Alfiya studies and lives in Ashok Nagar in Delhi. Asked whether her family knew she was in hospital, she said they did.

“I have told them that even if I die, stay happy, don’t be sad. My brother is preparing for NEET. I was also supposed to become something, but today I have decided I won’t be anyone’s slave. The men in uniform are slaves to the government. They are beating children…I don’t want a job like that. My dreams died today. My father is also in the police. Today, I have told him too, that he should quit this job.”

When Newslaundry sought her consent to take her photograph, she said: “At least you are asking. They beat me while hurling abuses at my mother and sister. I will never forget today.”

At the front of the march

Vishal Pandey, 26, from Faridabad, has a private job and had come to Jantar Mantar for the protest. His leg is in a cast.

“The police rained blows on my legs badly. They hit me a lot. Then when I broke free and ran, my leg got stuck in the barricading and I fell right there. After that, the police beat me with more batons. I was walking at the very front of the march,” he said.

“Not many people at home know. Otherwise everyone will scold me and come rushing here. What happened today wasn’t right. Don’t policemen also have families?"

Kallu, 35, reached Delhi from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh two days ago, drawn to the sit-in at Jantar Mantar, he says, by frustration over unemployment and inflation. He alleges police beat him badly and fractured his right leg.

“The three of us friends came here by train. Right now no one knows where anyone else is. My phone isn’t even charged. Someone just got me to the hospital. I’m getting treated. I run my household by doing labour work. We voted for the BJP before, but I am fed up with the rising inflation under this government. I lost most of my family in Covid. I want the government to change.”

‘Protesters with me’

Amit Kumar sat on a stretcher with a bandaged arm, being fed by a man he met at the protest a few hours earlier. He had travelled from Chandauli district in Uttar Pradesh and reached Delhi by train at 7 am. The flesh on his right arm was torn open. He was brought to the hospital at around 6 pm and has been admitted since.

“As soon as we reached near Parliament, the police force stationed there began advancing toward us,” he says. “At this point, the police asked the protesters to fall back, but the protesters replied that they hadn’t come to fall back. They had come to push the government instead. After that, the police fired tear gas shells, which scattered the crowd. It was during this that the police baton-charged us.”

Abhishek from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh had been part of the protest for a month, and joined it without telling his family. They still do not know he was hurt.

“Right now I am lying on a hospital bed, but even at this moment, it’s my CJP protest companions who are with me. Both my legs were injured in the lathi charge,” he said.

A staff member in the second-floor ward said patients already admitted there had been moved elsewhere; only people injured in the protest were being brought in. Others were admitted on the ground floor, and many more were reported in the CMO hall of the other building.

At the police post inside the hospital, Newslaundry asked the SHO how many protesters and policemen had been injured. He refused to share any information. However, the Delhi Police has said 118 police personnel were injured in the violence on Monday. RML is not the only hospital where injured have been treated. Some are at Lady Hardinge.

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