Abhijeet Dipke, the founder and convenor of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), expressed frustration on Sunday regarding the absence of his spokespersons, Ashutosh Ranka and Sourav Das, during the significant ‘Sansad Chalo’ march held on July 20. Dipke described his feelings as ‘mad’ over their unavailability at a crucial political event.
He added that he tried calling Ranka and Das multiple times, but their phones were unreachable. “We will march, but we will march with responsibility. We are not going to do anything that will create problems for anybody here. Demonstrators spread from Jantar Mantar to Parliament, Raisina Road, Janpath, Connaught Place and India Gate as repeated clashes broke out between protesters and police in the attempt to reach Sansad.
He added that the two were kept at the venue for around five hours, although the meeting lasted only 10 minutes. Dipke led the ‘Sansad Chalo’ march on July 20 , which was also the first day of Monsoon session of the Parliament. CJP’s march was part of a 37-days-long agitation that called for the resignation of then union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over exam irregularities in the NEET UG exam. Pradhan submitted his resignation on July 25, prompting the protest to be called off.
In an interview with BBC, Dipke said that during the ‘Sansad Chalo’ march on July 20th, when he was on the third day of his hunger strike, Ranka and Das were called by BJP leaders for a discussion. Meanwhile, Dipke said the crowd grew impatient and wanted to proceed with the march, while he lacked the energy to lead them as it was the third day of his hunger strike. He said he was “pissed off” at the two as he was unable to address the crowd. And I just kept calling Sourav and Ashutosh, “Where the hell are you guys?” and the phone was just not reachable. I really got mad at them,” Dipke said. Asked if he would have done anything differently that day, amid police action against some protesters and criticism that CJP leaders were not present when it happened, Dipke said he would have asked Ranka and Das not to attend the meeting.
