Dhruv Rathee detained by police on return to India ahead of Jantar Mantar protest

Delhi's political circles are abuzz. A protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had been organised at Jantar Mantar on October 10 by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and some student organisations. Security agencies are fully alert in view of the protest.

Meanwhile, popular social media influencer and YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was detained by police as soon as he returned to India. The development has set off wide discussion and debate on social media.

Because of the announced Jantar Mantar protest, the police administration was already on alert. Police detained Rathee, who had returned from abroad, in the interest of maintaining law and order and security. Since the action, his supporters and social media users have been reacting in various ways.

Rathee is known for making fact-based videos on politics, history and current issues. He began his career with a simple travel vlog while studying in Germany, and is today regarded as an influential voice in the digital world at home and abroad. The latest developments have brought his journey so far back into discussion.

His large, animated, data-driven explainer videos deal with complex issues in politics and society. On education, he has studied subjects ranging from mechanical engineering to renewable energy, economics and political science. After schooling in India, he took a degree in mechanical engineering and then went to Germany for higher studies, where he earned a master's degree in renewable energy from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Besides technical subjects, he was also interested in social sciences, so he studied economics and political science as well.

Rathee started his YouTube channel in 2014. While studying in Germany, he recorded some travel videos on an iPhone 5s. In an interview he said that editing his first travel vlog himself took him more than two months. The channel initially focused on travel and lifestyle. On September 16, 2016, he uploaded his first commentary video on the political system, which changed the direction of the channel.

For the first six years or so, until 2020, Rathee handled all the research, script writing and video editing alone. As subscribers grew rapidly, he built a professional team. In 2023, Time magazine included him in its list of "Next Generation Leaders". The magazine had specially praised his Hindi videos on fact-checking and trending subjects. Today, crores of people watch his videos.