The newly formed Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) on Saturday concluded its maiden protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar with an announcement that they will wait for a week either for the Centre to sack Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan or his voluntary resignation, after which they would launch a countrywide protest. Over the CJP’s protest, the Opposition stood vertically split into two camps — a sceptical Congress on one side, while the rest of the parties cheered on from the sidelines.
Opposition Backs CJP
The CJP drew support from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Samajwadi Party (SP), Trinamool Congress (TMC), Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Left parties, among others.
“The cockroach movement is an expression of the huge anger and frustration experienced by the youth of this country. Rather than terming them anti-national, Modi govt should address their issues. AAP supports their demands. The Prime Minister must sack the education minister immediately,” AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said in a post on X. Notably, Dipke was a member of the core team of AAP’s social media unit.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also voiced his support for the CJP-led protest, writing on X: “These voices must reach the ‘arrogant rulers’, now that the youth too have sparked a revolution,” while attaching a news clip carrying anti-government voices from the gathering.
In a statement, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray called the CJP protesters “the destiny-makers and future of the country”.
“It is not right to belittle them by calling them ‘cockroaches’ and deny them justice. The NEET paper leak has devastated lakhs of young people. All these aggrieved young men and women are now raising their voices by becoming cockroaches. The government will have to listen to their demands,” Thackeray said.
TMC MP Mahua Moitra also lauded Dipke. “Cockroaches survive even a nuclear holocaust — don’t take them lightly. Onwards and upwards,” she said in a post on X.
Congress Takes A Cautious Stance
Some leaders from the Congress party dismissed the CJP protest, calling it “performative” and a “brainchild of the AAP”. However, the party’s official line seemed more focused on highlighting the struggles of its own student and youth wings.
In a long post on X, Supriya Shrinate, chairperson of the Congress’s social media and digital platforms, listed the protests led by the party’s youth frontal organisations, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and the Indian Youth Congress (IYC), across states over the last month against the NEET paper “leak” and the CBSE marking row.
“They have braved scorching 47°C heat, they have faced water cannons, they have been beaten mercilessly, they have been lathicharged, they have been arrested and detained. Yet, did you see this on prime-time news? Did you see the courage, the sweat, the blood and the resolve of these young Indians?
“No. You did not. And that itself tells you everything about whose voices the system wants to amplify and whose it wants to suppress,” Shrinate said.
(With PTI Inputs)