Prateek Tanmay
The ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ was featured in discussions at the INDIA bloc partners’ meeting in Delhi yesterday, as key leaders pointed to a wave of online support for the platform. While some questioned whether this support for the CJP meant the people no longer had faith in the Opposition parties, others said there was a need to engage with the platform.
Stressing that opposition parties need to be active and on the ground round the year, and not just during elections, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray is learnt to have pointed to the wave of support for ‘Cockroach Janta Party’. Appearing in the meeting virtually, Thackeray is learnt to have said that members of the INDIA alliance need to introspect on why an online phenomenon such as ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ has managed to get such traction online. “Have people lost faith in us?” he is learnt to have said at the meeting.
According to sources, Thackeray said Opposition parties need to hit the roads and actively raise public issues throughout the year. He also said the bloc needs to project a leader as its face.
The ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ also found a mention in the remarks of the National Conference leader and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who is learnt to have said that the Opposition should engage with the ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ because they must be “doing something right”. CPI-ML (Liberation) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said the alliance should extend solidarity to people’s movements such as the ‘Cockroach Janta Party’.
A satirical platform founded in response to a remark by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, which he has since clarified, the ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ has amassed a huge following on social media platforms. This Saturday, they organised a protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar and demanded Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation over exam irregularities and paper leaks.
In fact, voices from within the Congress have spoken on the ‘Cockroach Janta Party’, too. Earlier, senior Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor said the massive online traction for ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ had revealed the mood of the country’s youth. In an interview with The Indian Express, he said the online phenomenon shows the “extent to which there is frustration and dissatisfaction that the public can express through being able to tap into an initiative like this”.
In a separate column, Tharoor advised the ‘cockroaches’ – as supporters of the satirical platform call themselves – that “true change often happens in the mundane processes of daily politics” and encouraged them to participate in the electoral process.
The INDIA bloc met in Delhi on Monday
Changed Equations
The INDIA bloc meeting took place in the aftermath of the Assembly polls in four states – Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Assam. The BJP held on to Assam and wrested West Bengal from the Trinamool Congress. The Congress unseated the Left in Kerala, and actor-politician Vijay’s TVK defeated the DMK in Tamil Nadu.
Between the last INDIA bloc meeting and this one, many equations had changed. Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, who once challenged Congress’s leadership of the bloc, is now on the backfoot following the Bengal defeat and the ongoing meltdown in her party ranks. DMK, once a key member of the INDIA bloc, has left the bloc after the Congress snapped its alliance with the MK Stalin-led party and joined hands with TVK after its Tamil Nadu win.
Congress targeted
Allies sent a strong message to allies in yesterday’s meeting. According to sources, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav told the Congress leadership – represented by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi – that the party should show a “large heart” and be “accommodative”. This is also significant as elections in Uttar Pradesh are due next year, and hard bargaining between Congress and the Samajwadi Party over seat-sharing is expected.
Akhilesh also pointed out that while regional parties have no qualms in saying that they are in alliance with the Congress, the Grand Old Party never says so. He also criticised the Congress’s decision to snap ties with DMK and join hands with TVK – NCP (SP)’s Supriya Sule and CPI(M)’s John Brittas endorsed this view.
Five decisions
Announcing the decisions made in Monday’s meeting, Congress president Kharge said the INDIA bloc would write to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on alleged electoral irregularities and also press for the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan amid the uproar over paper leaks and exam glitches.
“It was agreed to send a letter to CJI (Chief Justice of India) on SIR (Special Intensive Revision) vote loot and stealing elections. The letter is to be delivered to the CJI very soon,” he said. He said the Opposition parties would demand the resignation of Education Minister Pradhan because he had presided over the “betrayal of lakhs of youth who appeared for NEET and CBSE exams”.
Kharge also demanded that the Union government call an all-party meeting to discuss the precarious economic situation, unemployment, price rise and other people-centric issues. The Congress chief announced that the INDIA bloc parties had agreed to meet every two months. “The next meeting will be held in Hyderabad in August,” he said.
