New Delhi, June 16 -- Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke has attributed the assault on him during a Jaipur protest to India's deepening unemployment crisis, a day after two men slapped him repeatedly whilst he was being carried on supporters' shoulders at Shaheed Smarak on Monday, 15 June.

Speaking a day after the incident, Dipke reframed the attack in economic terms rather than political ones. "If the person had a good job, he wouldn't have resorted to such actions. I request the Govt, to provide better jobs to such people," he said.

The statement by Dipke is a notable shift from his initial characterisation of the assault, in which the CJP founder had described it as a deliberate act of intimidation. "This is a tactic ...