New Delh, Oct. 5 -- The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on Monday sought to play down its recent sparring with sections of the Congress, welcoming the INDIA Bloc's proposed protest on Tuesday and saying its own October 10 mobilisation should be seen as a broader call by the youth rather than that of a particular organisation.
CJP co-convener Saurav Das said everyone -- political parties, student organisations, activists and common people -- should assert their rights through peaceful protests.
"We welcome all peaceful protests. Everyone should make efforts, be it INDIA Bloc or other student organisations or activists, or common people. Everyone needs to assert their rights," Das told a press conference, referring to the INDIA Bloc's planned protest against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Tuesday.
On the October 10 mobilisation plan of the CJP, Das said, "You should not consider the call for protests on October 10 as our call or someone else's call. This is the call by the youth and Gen Z. We are one part of that."
The remarks come against the backdrop of an over-the-weekend online spat between CJP and sections aligned with the Congress, after a social media post compared CJP national convener Abhijeet Dipke with AISA president Neha Bora.
While Dipke and Bora themselves rejected any rivalry, CJP leaders accused sections of the "liberal ecosystem" of seeking to undermine Dipke.
AAP Delhi president Saurabh Bharadwaj also weighed in, cautioning against replacing one form of "hero worship" with another.
The exchange brought simmering differences between CJP and sections of Congress into the open. Sections of the Congress have been wary of CJP's emergence given the AAP background of several of its prominent faces, while AAP has backed its recent mobilisations.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.