Time for CJP to expand its sights

A controversial remark by the Chief Justice of India, referring to unemployed youth as “cockroaches” during a Supreme Court hearing in May, led to the sudden founding of the Cockroach Janta Party, a satirical Indian political movement and since then it has drawn an explosive response from all sections of society, gaining millions of followers online. Supporters of the movement are now on a stir at Jantar Mantar in Delhi demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan for the sloppy handling of the previous NEET-UG exam, which was marred by leaks and controversies.

But now that the NEET retest is over and students would be anxious to put all that has happened behind them and focus on the results to come, one wonders if it isn’t time for the CJP and founder Abhijit Dipke to expand their horizons and look for other issues which appeal to the public mind. And those on which the government has been put on the mat more than once? There are enough of them; price rise for one with everything from food to fuel becoming costlier than what it used to be about 3 months ago. But then, the Iran-US Israel war happened and since then, the aam janta has been struggling to cope with his spiralling bills.

Main stream political parties have hardly been able to convert this into an aggressive campaign tool and target the Central government. One can’t help but draw a parallel between the CJP and the India Against Corruption movement which tormented the then Congress-led UPA government a decade ago and forced its ouster in 2014. It had icons like Gandhian Anna Hazare, Sarajbit Roy and a former Income Tax officer, Arvind Kejriwal, who made the many scams haunting the government including the CWG scam and 2G scam a daily mantra. The corruption charges caught the imagination of the common man and in no time, the UPA lost any chance of returning to power.

There is no doubt that the corruption charges in many BJP ruled states could be a potent weapon for the CJP to widen its reach. The relentless deployment of central agencies like the ED and CBI to browbeat political rivals into submission could be another issue on which the CJP could win adherents. The barely disguised bias against opposition ruled states and communities, which do not fit into its majoritarian agenda, is another talking point on which it can build up mass support. And last but not the least, Dipke and his team will have to look beyond themselves for clean and non controversial public figures, who can lend legitimacy to their movement, and also firm up united fronts with similar-minded outfits with whom they can find common cause.