Dharmendra Pradhan quits: What opposition can learn from CJP-led students protest
NEW DELHI: “Jhukti hai duniya, jhukhane wala chahiye” : These are remarks by Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of Cockroach Janata Party, after Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned on Saturday following massive sustained protests by students against NEET-UG examination paper leak.”We have done it. Dharmendra Pradhan has resigned. And this resignation is proof that if you people are not afraid, if you people do not bow down to this government, then we can take the resignation of anyone,” Dipke said, reacting to the big news. The Cockroach Janata Party was born out of a meme in May this year. In two months, it has ended up achieving what many political parties in the opposition space could not do in the last 12 years.
CJP Jantar Mantar Protest Updates
In a letter shared on X, Pradhan announcing his resignation said, “The situation that has emerged at Jantar Mantar and elsewhere in the country should not be exploited by anti-national forces. The unity of the country must remain intact. The future of every student in India should not get entangled in legal complications.” The significance of this one resignation can be gauged if we rewind to the past and remember what Union minister Rajnath Singh had once said in the midst of the raging Lalit Modi controversy. The Congress was demanding resignations of some top BJP leaders for helping Lalit Modi leave the country. Rajnath Singh had then remarked: “Ministers here do not resign. This is not UPA; this is NDA.”The Congress-led UPA, which ruled the country from 2004 to 2014, saw resignations of several top ministers in two terms – some on charges of corruption, some for enforcing responsibility for administrative failures.But since 2014, the situation has been different. There have been several controversies and protests in the last 12 years, but none was strong enough to achieve the resignation of the concerned ministers. Several top central ministers have been removed since 2014, but not one of them had to quit under any “protest pressure”. The only time Prime Minister Modi was perhaps under some pressure to remove his ministers was in 2021 when Union health minister Harsh Vardhan had to step down after public anger over the handling of the Covid crisis. But his exit was part of a larger Cabinet reshuffle that saw 12 ministers quit the Modi Cabinet. The exit of Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar then also came as a surprise, but none of them were fallout of any protests.
To that extent, Dipke and his movement have achieved what has been unthinkable in recent times. But while Dipke deserves to be credited for mobilising the students and keeping them focussed, his success perhaps may not have been possible without the active involvement of climate activist Sonam Wangchuk – whose 26-day hunger strike changed the dynamics of the Jantar Mantar protest.Wangchuk, who walked into the protest with a rose flower in his hand, gave the biggest boost that the movement needed initially. His hunger strike ensured that the focus remained on the movement at a time when the government appeared reluctant to recognise or engage with the Jantar Mantar protesters.It’s a different matter though that the end of Sonum Wangchuk’s fast on Thursday night, in the presence of two Union ministers, or rather in the absence of any CJP representative by his side in hospital, led to several questions being raised amid allegations of a deal with the Centre. The CJP welcomed the end of his fast but made it crystal clear that their protest will continue hinting at differences on the way forward. Such was the buzz and criticism that Sonam Wangchuk was forced to release a video message to take on his critics.Little wonder then, Pradhan’s eventual resignation may perhaps be viewed and celebrated by some more as CJP’s victory and less as an outcome of Wangchuk’s long fast. However, the fact remains that the two complemented each other for most part of the agitation.Wangchuk welcomed Pradhan’s resignation and posted on X: “IT’S A VICTORY OF DEMOCRACY. direct democracy… straight from the streets. It’s a victory of peace, patience & perseverance. Congratulations CJP, Gen Z of the nation and thank you all citizens for shedding fear and the fear of fear and rising up from every corner of the nation. FROM ACCOUNTABILITY, NOW TO REFORMS.”
From meme to movement
It was on May 15 this year, the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, during a hearing reportedly said that some unemployed youngsters become journalists, RTI activists or social media users and “start attacking everyone”. The CJI later clarified that his remarks had been misquoted and were not meant as a criticism of unemployed youth in general. He said he was referring specifically to people entering professions with fake or bogus degrees, and added that reports suggesting he demeaned youth were “totally baseless”.But by the time clarification came it was perhaps too late.On May 16, a day later, Abhijeet Dipke, who had previously worked as a communications strategist with the Aam Aadmi Party, launched the Cockroach Janata Party as a satire movement. He launched a website with the tagline “Voice of the Lazy & Unemployed.”Dipke described it as a platform for “all the ‘cockroaches’ out there”, with eligibility criteria listed as being unemployed, lazy, chronically online, and able to rant professionally. The satirical post gathered momentum as anger built over the NEET-UG paper leak, and Dipke flew back to India in early June to lead protests near Jantar Mantar in person.Dipke’s return was viewed with a lot of skepticism. His biggest challenge was to prove that online following could be translated on the ground into offline support. Dipke’s movement got a boost from several other social activists and also Wanghchuk. On July 25, Dipke and his movement tasted thier first big success when Dharmendra Pradhan was forced to resign due to students protestDipke had an immediate message for the CJI: “I thank CJI Kant for calling us cockroaches. Had you not called us cockroaches, Pradhan would not have resigned.”
Lesson for opposition parties
The success of this students’ protest also has a harsh message for the opposition parties, which did their best to own and influence the movement. While several parties and their leaders joined forces with Dipke and the student protesters at Jantar Mantar, the main opposition party Congress used guerilla tactics to hog the limelight and took the protests to the doors of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.The fact that the opposition parties did play a small role in piling pressure on the government cannot be denied. The monsoon session of Parliament was under way and all senior opposition leaders were beginning to rally around the protesters perhaps to be seen and counted.But this students’ protest has reinforced a harsh reality for all the opposition parties. After the farmers’ protest of 2021 which pushed the Modi government on the backfoot and forced the NDA to repeal the three farm laws, this is the second successful protest to put pressure on the government. And there is one common thread to both the movements – the protests were led by the stakeholders themselves and the opposition parties were forced to stay at the fringes.While they are all now busy praising the youth, they need to contemplate why these very youth don’t rally behind them? Go to Source
