As expected, the Jantar Mantar protest by the Cockroach Janta Party did not draw any significant number of people, particularly the youth, fashionably described as ‘Gen Z’. Liberal estimates by a cross-section of the media, both domestic and international, put the number of people participating in the protest at only a few hundred. This is quite an inconsequential number by any standard, particularly when the CJP had drawn about 22 million (2.2 crore) followers on its Instagram page within a few days of its formation.
Interestingly, none of the opposition political parties, particularly the Congress, expressed any support for the CJP, which is demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET paper leak and the fiasco in the CBSE examination process. The Congress has also been demanding Pradhan’s dismissal for the same reasons. But the party preferred to maintain a distance from the CJP, and rightly so.
The CJP was formed after the Chief Justice of India, Justice Surya Kant, equated some unqualified, uneducated and unemployed youth masquerading as journalists, activists and lawyers with cockroaches. He later clarified that by cockroaches he meant those who were neither educated nor qualified to practise law.
The CJP was formed by a US-based 30-year-old man, Abhijeet Dipke, immediately after Justice Surya Kant’s remarks. He satirically named the party the “Cockroach Janta Party”, taking two words from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in an obvious jab at it.
From day one, there was apprehension and suspicion about the “type of followers” the CJP had attracted on social media platforms, particularly Instagram. Some reports suggested that the maximum number of followers came from outside India and that a majority of them were from Pakistan. There can be multiple reasons for that. However, given the social media warfare that Pakistan’s ISI has allegedly waged against India for a long time, there were apprehensions that people and countries hostile to India might also be trying to inflate the follower count using specialised algorithms. Pakistan will do anything to see India destabilised.
However, this is not to question the intentions of the founders and supporters of the CJP in India. There is an element of anger and frustration among youth across the country. The NEET paper leak and the recent mess reported in the CBSE on-screen marking system have led to anger and frustration, which is quite understandable. Whether the Union Education Minister should be held responsible for that is debatable. But that does not deny anyone the right to seek his dismissal. If anyone does so, he or she should not be attributed with ulterior motives or anti-national intentions.
At the same time, people across the country do not appear to have any major problems with the way things are functioning. The stable democracy that has existed in India for about eight decades is unique. The democratic system is getting stronger with every passing year and election. There is always a smooth transition of power across India, both at the state and federal levels.
Notwithstanding criticism of the Election Commission of India, which is responsible for conducting elections across the country, the electoral process in India remains one of the most credible in the world.
Also read: CJP protest: 6 detained; founder says accounts hacked
It is natural to draw parallels between earlier youth-led protests in neighbouring countries, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, and the protest organised by the CJP at Jantar Mantar. The protests in those three countries led to regime changes. Critics and opponents of the BJP government at the Centre may harbour a wishful hope that something similar could happen in India, having failed to unseat Prime Minister Narendra Modi through the democratic process. Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly invoked Gen Z as an agent of systemic change.
However, he and his party have remained silent on the CJP, fearing that it may be a proxy of either the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Aam Aadmi Party. Dipke has earlier worked closely with the AAP. The Congress also appears to have been reminded of the protests at Ramlila Maidan in 2012, which targeted the Congress-led UPA government. It was from that India Against Corruption movement that the AAP emerged, albeit on a limited scale, while the BJP capitalised on the anti-Congress sentiment generated by the agitation. The BJP has not looked back since.
The Congress is also apprehensive that even if the CJP is not a proxy of the BJP or the AAP, it could still eat into the anti-BJP support base. There is a perception within the Congress that if the CJP gains strength, it will end up dividing anti-BJP votes and thereby benefit the BJP. That is why most opposition parties have remained guarded and maintained a safe distance from the CJP.
As far as the BJP is concerned, it may not have to worry much about any protest or movement that the CJP manages to build. The BJP has its “first line of defence” in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), with a deeply motivated and strongly integrated network of volunteers spread across every corner of the country.
Even during the India Against Corruption movement in 2012, it was the RSS that backed it from behind the scenes. The RSS has operated since the days when there was no social media and when much of the mainstream media kept its distance from the organisation. One of the RSS’s communication strategies is often referred to, sometimes derisively, as a “whispering campaign”. In a positive sense, however, it refers to communication through word of mouth.
The CJP may have 22 million Instagram followers, but the RSS has about 50 lakh active members who meet daily, twice a day, in the morning and evening, and regularly participate in drills and discussions.
The NEET paper leak has led to anger and frustration among aspirants. The CBSE evaluation system has disappointed students. But should the entire system be held to ransom because of that? The answer is obviously no.
At the end of the day, the CJP protest at Jantar Mantar ended like many other demonstrations regularly staged there. The hype, indeed, was misplaced. The CJP is trying to bite more than it can chew.
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