By Satish Aparajit
Antar Mantar. Kali Kalantar. Hawa ka antar… Huuuuush!
For many of us, that childhood rhyme was less about astronomy and more about magic. Any crooked stick picked up during a game instantly became a magic wand. Wave it dramatically, chant a few mysterious words, and if your team won, the stick acquired mythical status. The real battle then began—not over the game, but over who got to keep the “magic wand.”
Years later came (sometime in the early sixty’s) my first visit to Jantar Mantar—whether in Jaipur or Delhi, memory refuses to cooperate. What I do remember is standing in awe before those giant concrete instruments. No batteries. No software updates. No artificial intelligence. Just brilliant geometry accurately telling the time through the movement of the sun. Remarkably, centuries later, it still works flawlessly. Except, of course, at night—when even the Sun clocks out.
Today, however, Jantar Mantar has evolved into something entirely different. It is India’s officially unofficial protest arena. Every agitation, grievance, outrage and demonstration eventually seems to find its way there.
One cannot help wondering why this particular venue was chosen. The answer may lie in convenience—not for the protesters, but for those in power. Keep demonstrations confined to a designated space, control access, barricade a few roads, shut a metro station or two, make a few reassuring promises, allow tempers to cool, and eventually move on to the next crisis. Democracy gets its photo opportunity, governance gets breathing space, and everyone claims victory.
It’s political crowd management with remarkable efficiency.
Then came the so-called “Cockroach Movement”. Unlike the usual protests, it appeared leaderless, carried no obvious party flag and spread rapidly through social media. Its appeal resonated with many young Indians frustrated by recurring issues—examinations, employment, economic uncertainty and governance—rather than the familiar cycle of ideological battles dominating television debates.
Predictably, the news channels swung into action. Speculation flew faster than facts. Invisible masterminds were discovered overnight. Foreign hands allegedly appeared from every direction. Prime-time debates produced more theories than evidence. As always, “nation wants to know” certainty arrived long before proof.
Meanwhile, the real genius of politics unfolded elsewhere.
While television cameras remained glued to the protests, Parliament continued its business. Politics, unlike cricket, rarely pauses because spectators are watching another match. Governments govern, oppositions oppose, negotiations continue, alliances shift and legislative arithmetic quietly takes centre stage.
History repeatedly teaches us that, in politics, timing is often more important than noise. Public attention is a finite resource. The longer one issue dominates headlines, the easier it becomes for several others to proceed unnoticed.
Perhaps that is the real Tantra of Jantar Mantar—not astrology, not astronomy, but attention management.
The ancient observatory once measured the movement of celestial bodies. Today’s version measures something far more unpredictable—the movement of public opinion. The Sun still casts its shadow with mathematical precision. Politicians, however, have mastered the art of casting much longer shadows.
Someone recently shared a delightful Hindi quip: “Saare fasaad ki jad NEET hai… isliye paani zaroor milaye” – (the root cause of all this is NEET however hence you need to dilute it with water).
Dark humour, perhaps—but humour often survives where logic struggles.
And as the old saying goes:- “When the law no longer protects the citizen from the corrupt, but instead protects the corrupt from the citizen, democracy enters dangerous territory.”
Whether one agrees with that sentiment or not, it is a reminder and worth reflecting upon. Lastly, two people will probably find their names in the list of Padma awards for next year – CJI (for inadvertently creating CJP) and leader of CJP for assisting the Government by sustaining the protest for so many days so that the leaders could run their business in parliament and get the required numbers to pass bills like Delimitation and Amendment to certain other contentious issues as the rulers are likely to reach the magic figure of 360, (through buying effort), so understand the reason why the resignation was delayed.
(The author is a retired IAF Wing Commander and Shaurya Chakra awardee.)
