NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party accused the group that spearheaded massive student protests in New Delhi last month of hypocrisy for failing to play a more active role in the agitation now sweeping a state in India’s hinterland.
The Cockroach Janta Party has been a "mute spectator” to the protests in Jharkhand, which is led by Modi’s rivals, BJP spokesperson Keya Ghosh said on Tuesday (Aug 11). Its relative absence shows that the group’s agenda in New Delhi "was to just destabilise, or try to destabilise” the Modi government, she said.
"Very strangely, and hypocritically, the Cockroaches, they did not make any time to visit” the demonstrators in Jharkhand, Ghosh said. "We are asking the Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke... to come and sit with these students.”
The Cockroach Janta Party, a pressure group that began as a satirical movement, helped lead student protests in New Delhi over exam irregularities last month, culminating in the resignation of Modi’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The group called off its protests after his resignation, but similar demonstrations have since swept Jharkhand.
Students in the mineral-rich eastern state are demanding a federal investigation into alleged irregularities in state recruitment exams.
The Jharkhand protests have largely been driven by local students and job aspirants rather than the Cockroach Janta Party. The group has, however, voiced support for their demands, while its founder has criticised the police use of water cannons and batons against demonstrators on Monday.
"Be it Jantar Mantar or Jharkhand, such police brutality against students is cruel and inhuman,” CJP’s Dipke said in a post X.
Some CJP members who were active in the New Delhi demonstrations have also joined the protests in Jharkhand, according to local media. "They are contributing to this protest, and we will not leave this spot until the protest concludes and all the students’ demands are met,” Akshay Shinde, national coordinator of CJP, told ANI news agency.
Jharkhand is governed by a coalition led by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha that includes the Indian National Congress, with the BJP serving as the main opposition party in the state assembly.
"Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition, why isn’t he here?” Ghosh asked on Bloomberg TV. "Just because it is your coalition government?”
Gandhi, who hasn’t visited the protest sites in either New Delhi or Jharkhand, has condemned the use of force against students in both places. "Students have a right to peaceful protest, and only dialogue can yield solutions,” Gandhi said in a post on X. - Bloomberg
