New Delhi: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) Monday said it was awaiting the government’s promised written agreement on the withdrawal of criminal cases against protesters and organisers, and warned that it would be forced to resume its agitation if the assurance was not received by Tuesday.
Addressing a press conference, CJP national spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka said the issue was discussed during the third round of talks with the government before the 36-day protest at Jantar Mantar was called off.
“In the third round of talks, we had agreed that all FIRs filed against protesters and organisers across the country would be withdrawn and no new FIR would be filed against any organiser and protester in future,” Ranka said.
He said the CJP had submitted a draft agreement to Union ministers J P Nadda and Jitendra Singh, and it was agreed that the government would share a written agreement by Tuesday after legal consultations.
“We are waiting for the government to share the written agreement. We hope a senior Cabinet minister will honour the agreement and FIRs will be withdrawn, no protester or organiser would be harassed, and no cases would be filed in future,” he said.
Ranka said if the written agreement was not received by Tuesday and protesters and organisers arrested in connection with the agitation were not released, the outfit would be “forced to protest again”.
CJP chief spokesperson Saurav Das said the CJP had ended its protest “in good faith” after the government agreed to act on its principal demands or assured action within a specified timeline.
Ranka said the organisation had consulted senior advocate Kapil Sibal before and after calling off the agitation to ensure that the youth movement was not derailed by what he described as politically motivated litigation or other attempts to weaken it.
“When we called off the protest, we had doubts that once the momentum went down, the government might target people at an individual level. The same playbook has been used in other protests, where people have been individually targeted,” he alleged.
He said the CJP had been providing legal and medical assistance to protesters across the country since the beginning of the movement.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who also addressed the press conference, said no action should be taken against students who participated in what he described as an organic protest.
“We don’t want action to be taken against students who did a protest. It was an organic movement. Governments want no dissent,” Sibal said.
The CJP had called off its 36-day agitation at Jantar Mantar on Saturday after the government accepted key demands of the protesters, including the resignation of then Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, and assured action on other demands within an agreed timeline.
