The Congress, which till yesterday was keeping distance from the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protest and Sonam Wangchuk’s fast, today suddenly stood in support of the CJP. Senior Congress leaders including Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi suddenly staged a dharna near the Prime Minister’s residence this afternoon. No one has yet had the audacity to stage a protest near the Prime Minister’s residence. There is tight security at the PM’s residence and in case of any untoward incident, Section 144 is imposed around the PM’s residence.
But on Tuesday, the police intelligence system remained asleep and Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and party national president Mallikarjun Kharge reached 7 Lok Kalyan Marg. All the big leaders of Congress were with him. Chief Ministers of Karnataka and Kerala and many MPs also. This is a shocking incident, because PM’s residence is in the highly sensitive list.
Rahul Gandhi’s aggressive attitude
As soon as the information about this strike was received, Union Minister Jitendra Singh along with Home Secretary Govind Mohan went to talk to Rahul Gandhi. In a conversation of about 15 minutes, Rahul Gandhi said that the Home Minister should clarify yesterday’s incident in the Parliament and the NEET paper leak issue should be discussed in the House.
Jitendra Singh said that he will talk to the high command and inform. Jitendra Singh told him after some time that the government is ready to discuss this issue in Parliament. According to Jitendra Singh, seeing the tables turning, Rahul Gandhi went back on his promise and said, no, our demands are discussion in Parliament on the issue of NEET paper and resignation of the Union Education Minister. When Jitendra Singh told him that it does not suit a senior leader like him to make such a statement, Rahul Gandhi said, it is his choice.
Rahul’s appeal to the countrymen
In his tweet, Rahul Gandhi appealed to the countrymen to join this protest in support of the demands of the students. He has also said that our protest will end only when the Prime Minister apologizes. The timing of this changed strategy by Congress towards CJP was chosen very thoughtfully. Tuesday was the birthday of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge. To convince him, Congress leaders had reached his residence on Rajaji Marg.
At the same time, Rahul Gandhi asked everyone to go on strike. They reached near the gate of PM’s residence located at a distance of about 500 meters and sat on strike. He also appealed to the leaders of Indi alliance to come to the protest site. Finally, Rahul, Priyanka and Akhilesh Yadav were taken into custody by the police and taken to Sansad Marg police station.
AAP leader Sanjay Singh angry at Rahul Gandhi
Aam Aadmi Party leader and MP Sanjay Singh got angry at Rahul Gandhi due to his protest near PM’s residence. He wrote in his tweet, Rahul Gandhi is weakening CJP’s strike by this strike. On the instructions of the Prime Minister, they are sitting on a dharna near the PM’s residence. Due to this, there was a split in the Indi alliance and Rahul Gandhi had to come on the back foot. After some time the police took him into custody.
It is known that CJP’s protest is still going on at Jantar Mantar. On the other hand, Sonam Wangchuk, who is admitted in the hospital, has announced to continue her fast. However, yesterday he had said that he would end his fast with some conditions.
Government challenges
This strategy of Congress worked momentarily and suddenly the discussion about Congress’s dharna was spread in the mainstream media. People even forgot the ongoing CJP dharna at Jantar Mantar, whereas the nature of the CJP-led movement on Monday was so widespread that the government’s stance had become sympathetic towards the agitating students.
Now many more challenges have arisen before the government. Farmers are restless about the free trade deal with America. Farmers of Punjab had given a call to march to Delhi on Tuesday. In view of this, the government had sealed the Shambhu border. The farmers had announced to postpone their agitation for the time being due to this obstruction. But this new strategy of Congress has put pressure on the government. On the other hand, Congress is upset with this move.
The atmosphere was heated by the students’ demonstration
But Sanjay Singh has put Congress in the dock. Thus, on Monday, July 20, the students’ protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi had become so fierce at one point that it seemed as if the police were no longer in the power to stop it. Something similar to the way farmers had captured the Red Fort five years ago on 26 January 2021.
The monsoon session of Parliament had started yesterday itself. All the leaders of the ruling party and the opposition were in Delhi. On the other hand, students surrounded the Parliament. Some people even started trying to enter the Parliament premises. The Prime Minister goes to his office during the recess of Parliament. Obstacles were created in their path but the police got the way cleared. Stone pelting, lathicharge everything happened. Many students and policemen were also injured.
CJP’s appearance
Finally, on behalf of the government, Minister JP Naddha talked to the delegation of leaders of Cockroach Janata Party and heard their complaints. But till now the government has not taken any decision regarding Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Actually, due to the leak of NEET paper, students all over the country were agitated. They were demanding the removal of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, but in the absence of a platform, they simply vented their anger on social media. Some even committed suicide out of frustration over the scam in the medical entrance examination.
Meanwhile, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court called today’s young generation cockroaches. Just after this, the frustration of NEET students got widespread. Abhijeet Deepke, who was in the Aam Aadmi Party, formed the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) and gave it an organizational form by connecting it with students.
Government warned late
Within no time CJP got around two crore followers on social media. Not only did the students and youth join in, famous environmentalist and social activist Sonam Wangchuk also joined it. And from June 20, CJP started protesting at Jantar Mantar. Sonam Wangchuk announced hunger strike from June 28. But on July 18, Delhi Police picked him up from Jantar Mantar and admitted him to the hospital. He had placed a condition that if the government accepts its failure in the education system, especially in the case of NEET paper leak. Take responsibility for this and CJP should be allowed to march to Parliament. Apart from this, he also got the trust of the MPs. This was a challenge for both the ruling party and the opposition. Both BJP and Congress were keeping distance from his hunger strike. But the situation worsened after Sonam Wangchuk was picked up.
Metro increased difficulties
And on July 20, there was such a massive demonstration from Jantar Mantar to Parliament that the news of this movement of youth spread throughout the country and abroad. At the same time, the movement also became leaderless and the peaceful movement suddenly turned violent. Then the government alerted. On the evening of July 20, a delegation of CJP met Union Health Minister JP Naddha. In this way, for the first time the agitating students talked face to face with the government. But a strange thing came to light that the agitating students are still saying that the government called them for talks.
On the other hand, the government claims that the agitators themselves came to meet the minister. These contradictory claims definitely show that there was no clear direction behind the movement. Even Sonam Wangchuk says that due to pressure from the Lieutenant Governor, he agreed to talks with the government and he has no intention of toppling the BJP government. Apart from this, there are other reasons to be suspicious of this movement. Delhi Metro doors were not opened at stations like Mandi House, Barakhamba, Janpath etc. Therefore there was chaos among office goers.
Distance of Congress from CJP
People walked for miles to reach the Central Secretariat. And this was the peak time when every central employee is in a hurry to go to office. The crowd of office goers was also considered to be a crowd of agitators. This was the foolishness of the police and administration. However, on July 21, JP Naddha reached Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and Lady Hardinge to inquire about the well being of the injured agitators. He also presented him fruits. Among the injured, around 60 are protesters and 118 are police personnel. Leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and his MP sister Priyanka also went to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and met the injured agitators. He demanded an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on this issue. But Congress has kept distance from this movement of students. When the students were sitting at Jantar Mantar, only Pawan Kheda went to meet them.
Ramgopal Yadav’s initiative
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party MP Professor Ram Gopal Yadav has said that if the government does not want to remove Dharmendra Pradhan, then it should change his department. This statement came when the Prime Minister had called a meeting after the CJP protest. The Prime Minister had said, his sympathies are with the students. The government’s stance is now sympathetic towards CJP and is in a mood to find a way out. Because even a spark can turn into a ball of fire.
Farmers of Punjab have called for march to Delhi to support the movement. Yesterday some farmers had come to protest at Kisan Ghat. They are unhappy with the possible trade deal with America. Due to this call of farmers, the government has come into action mode and has sealed the Shambhu border of the highway coming from Punjab to Haryana. An alternative route has been proposed for everyday vehicles.
assembly election ballots
Political analysts believe that all this is happening in view of the assembly elections to be held in March 2027. Next year there are elections in five states including Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal. Every incident in Delhi has an immediate impact here, hence the government and the opposition are laying their political cards.
Some people speculate that CJP is basically the child of Aam Aadmi Party and AAP is in government in Punjab. That is why Arvind Kejriwal has become active. On the other hand, there is BJP government in Uttar Pradesh. BJP’s challenge is to save a huge state like Uttar Pradesh. Recently, BJP had to be badly disappointed in Uttar Pradesh in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav had won 37 seats by playing PDA. There Congress is not in a position to do anything on its own.
Better late than never!
All the 6 seats that Congress got in UP were because of the alliance with Akhilesh. During yesterday’s protest, the service and care of the injured by Dimple Yadav, SP’s Kannauj MP and Akhilesh Yadav’s wife, has also had a wide impact. Even so, UP is adjacent to a large part of Delhi. This is also the reason for the government’s concern. That is why the government’s stance is soft and it is being assumed that sooner or later the government will take some extraordinary step in the NEET matter.
However, the violent protests on July 20 and the haste of the administration clearly show that the Delhi administration is not able to find a solution to things. Delhi is the capital of the country, there will definitely be demonstrations here. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the government to find a solution to the problem in time. Still, due to the activeness of the government it is becoming clear that better late than never!
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