This was the first public rally of the online movement CJP and the public response it received was also impressive.
The peaceful end of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protest rally at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi has naturally brought a sigh of relief to the Delhi Police as well as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. This was the first public rally of the online movement CJP and the public response to it was also impressive. The organizers of the rally claim that thousands of people, especially the youth, participated in it. However, according to the Delhi Police and independent media, the number was between 1500 and 2000.
Mobilizing such a large number of people without any organizational structure in the middle of summer - and that too despite the uncertainty of whether the rally would get police permission - was no small task in itself. There were also speculations that the BJP and other saffron parties would create an atmosphere of tension and confrontation during the rally. But the Delhi Police and administrative authorities showed maturity and preparedness throughout the exercise. The leaders of the group that came to disrupt the rally were taken into custody.
The impression is that this protest was merely symbolic. It is clear that the Bharatiya Janata Party and the central government wanted that no such unfortunate incident should occur during the rally due to which the CJP's Chaudharys would get unnecessary publicity. Therefore, from the time CJP founder Abhijit Deepke reached New Delhi from America and handed over the approval letter for the rally to him in the presence of the media, no action to create unrest was allowed to be possible till the end of the rally. The rally ended with the demand for the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. An ultimatum of five hours was given for the resignation and then extended to seven days. There is no room for doubt that this ultimatum will be ignored by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
There is no doubt that the leak of the NEET paper and the shortcomings in the evaluation of the answer sheets of the CBSE 12th examination have caused a lot of unrest and anger among the youth across the country. The cancellation of entrance exams like NEET or JEE in its entirety and the initiation of a process like re-examination or the failure of the CBSE paper evaluation and result-generating software should be considered as a symbol of the failure of the entire administrative structure. Although the Education Minister is not directly responsible for such a failure, he is indirectly responsible as he is the head of the ministry. In such a situation, the demand for his resignation on moral grounds is in no way wrong or unjustified.
But today is not the era of idealism like the 1960s when the then Railway Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri resigned after a major train accident. In today's era, politicians convicted by the courts do not resign even after going to jail. Mr. Pradhan had been discharging his responsibilities efficiently in the last two Modi governments, first as the Union Petroleum Minister and then as the Skill Development Minister. He was known as a minister who spoke less and worked more. That is why he was given the charge of the Education Ministry in the current Modi cabinet. Unfortunately, his previous reputation in this ministry could not remain intact. The government claims that they are trying to bring the performance of various branches of this ministry on track and make it more people-oriented. But the results of these efforts so far are apparently not satisfactory.
It is no exaggeration to say that the recent failures of the Education Ministry have tarnished the image of the Modi government. The trolling of those who expose the failures by Modi-devoted people with labels like 'Pakistani' or 'foreign agent' was bound to increase the anger among the student community and their parents. Abhijit Deepke and his colleagues took advantage of this anger. Given the way they ran the entire campaign, it is not surprising that their actions reek of political ambitions. They are in a hurry to cash in on the opportunity of public anger politically.
That is why the rhetoric of turning the CJP into a political party has also started. But the distancing of the Congress and some other political parties from such efforts and the adoption of a moderate tone by the BJP after the initial bitterness is an expression of the fact that the established political parties are not in the mood to leave the field open for the 'cockroaches'. However, looking at India through the prism of Bangladesh or Nepal is both impractical and childish.
