The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), the youth-led outfit that spearheaded protests over the NEET paper leak and helped build pressure for accountability, is set to take its anti-Special Intensive Revision (SIR) campaign to Chennai, with organisers planning a 24-hour protest despite police denying permission.
However, the organisation has faced police action over its subsequent anti-SIR protests. Its leaders were arrested in Delhi, while Jantar Mantar was denotified as a designated protest site, restricting the movement’s ability to organise demonstrations there. The Supreme Court has also scrutinised the crackdown, directing the release of detained protesters without criminal antecedents and seeking responses from the Centre and Delhi Police over alleged police excesses. A police crackdown could invite criticism that the state government is weakening the anti-SIR agitation, potentially helping the BJP politically. At the same time, the TVK government has maintained that protests require prior permission and cannot be held in violation of police restrictions. With the organisers determined to go ahead and the police refusing permission, the demonstration could become a test of the TVK government’s approach to anti-SIR protests – and its ability to reconcile its position within the INDIA bloc with its insistence on enforcing police restrictions.
However, sources familiar with the organisers’ plans said the CJP intends to go ahead with the protest for the full 24 hours, setting up a potential confrontation with the police.
“They sought permission, we have denied,” a senior police officer told NDTV.
TVK is part of the Congress-led INDIA bloc, which has opposed the SIR. Yet, as the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, TVK must also navigate its working relationship with the BJP-led Union government.
On questions if ruling TVK benefitted from the SIR, the ruling party says it’s a victim, claiming without the SIR it would have swept polls, winning a majority of its own.
