The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) is getting ready for another round of street action. “Season 2 of Jantar-Mantar” would start very soon, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said on Wednesday.
The reference to ‘Season 1’ points back to the massive student-led agitation at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar last month. The demonstrations over exam paper leaks, student suicides and calls for educational reform turned up enough heat to force Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation as education minister.
The CJP then announced it would continue as a pressure group to hold democratic institutions accountable.
“Many people were commenting on Instagram when Season 2 of ‘Jantar-Mantar’ will begin. I want to tell them that Season 2 of ‘Jantar-Mantar’ is going to start very soon,” Dipke said.
CJP chief spokesperson Saurav Das said Dipke’s “Jantar Mantar Season 2” remark was not limited to another protest at the Delhi venue. “This itself is Season 2,” Saurav Das told ANI.
“Protests are taking place across the country against such incompetent governments and officers. On behalf of CJP, we are now embarking on a nationwide ‘listening tour’ to hear what the public has to say. We will run a campaign, and we are prioritising the issue of education starting from Independence Day,” he added.
Dipke on Wednesday alleged that the party struggled to find a venue for its volunteers’ meet in Delhi. He claimed several hall owners refused to rent space because of “pressure from above” and blamed the BJP.
“We were scheduled to hold our volunteers’ meet in Delhi today. We were looking for a hall, but no one would rent us one. Everyone kept saying there was pressure from above,” Dipke told reporters.
He said the party eventually managed to secure a hall after considerable difficulty and had a receipt to prove the booking. The venue owners were threatened, though, on the morning of the meeting, he said.
