New Delhi: Less than a month after calling off its 36-day agitation at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke Wednesday announced that season 2 of their campaign would begin soon.
Dipke also targeted Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the July 20 police action against CJP protesters who attempted to march towards Parliament, saying he should apologise in Parliament.
Why is Amit Shah running from Parliament He should come and apologise for the July 20 lathi charge. Pellet guns were fired, and tear gas was used on his instructions. Why is he running from Parliament now, he said.
Dipke, who was addressing volunteers in Delhi’s Naraina in an open gathering, alleged that the banquet hall where their meeting was scheduled cancelled the booking under pressure from the BJP.
This is the beginning of season 2. Many people on Instagram were asking when will Season 2 start. I would say that season 2 at Jantar Mantar is going to start very soon, Dipke said.
He said that attempts to stop the outfit from holding a volunteers’ meeting had only given it another platform to mobilise.
The more they go against us, the more it works in our favour. They’re unable to understand how to deal with us. They thought if they cut the water, food at Jantar Mantar we would go back… But we did not.
Today also they thought if they threaten the banquet hall we won’t hold the meet. Now the closed door meeting has become a public event. I think they want a Jantar Mantar everywhere, he said.
The CJP had called off its nationwide protest July 25 following talks with the government. Its Jantar Mantar agitation over the NEET paper leak issue had continued for 36 days and drawn support from students and young volunteers from across the country, besides opposition leaders.
The CJP founder alleged that the outfit had struggled to find a venue for the meeting, with several places refusing to host it.
We were going to have a volunteer’s meet here, for which we had booked this hall. We went to many places; we were not given a hall. We were turned away from several places.
They said if we give the hall we would face problems. With great difficulty we got this hall, but they were told they would be hanged upside down if they gave us the hall, he told reporters.
The BJP is intimidating people that if they give a hall to us they will face action, he alleged.
The meeting, Dipke said, was to chalk out plans to strengthen the agitation in Jharkhand led by student leader Devendra Nath Mahto, who is on a hunger strike, and to take forward the CJP’s campaign for schools in villages.
Ranchi protest is led by Devendra Mahto, who is sitting on a hunger strike. Our volunteers are supporting. Today we were going to discuss how to strengthen the Jharkhand agitation, and how to continue our campaign for schools in villages, he said.
In a post on X, Dipke said, We want an India where children carry the tricolour to school, not sell it at traffic signals out of poverty.
The CJP’s Jantar Mantar agitation led to the resignation of then Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Activist Sonam Wangchuk joined the protest June 28 and later went on an indefinite hunger strike before being shifted to Safdarjung Hospital after his health deteriorated.
The July 20 protest also saw police action as demonstrators attempted to march towards Parliament, with opposition parties subsequently raising the issue in the House.
After calling off the agitation, the CJP announced its national team, with Dipke named national convener, as the outfit moved to build an organisational structure.