Cockroach Janta party

I am trying to be calm, write with an open mind but I am angry. However, given the country’s political past with AAP, Chandrashekhar Azad, Kanhaiya, Umar Khaled etc., I am not convinced. Does that mean protestors should be subject to violence and death? Absolutely not. Does that mean I should also join in the protest at Jantar Mantar? It is a question I have been grappling with for a month now.

I am writing this article from a fancy co-working desk. Before renting this desk, I had debated whether I should rent the desk or participate in the sit-in. At the time, I had a bunch of doubts. The Cockroach Janta party claimed to be an independent party that would have a public funders’ list. To this day, I haven’t found the list. Did nobody fund them? If not, then, mikes, speakers, water-bottles etc. were kindness of fellow humans? If it was, I need to know. At least make that public.

Usually, a movement takes a while to gather as much interest as a meme about Cockroach Janta Party did. I did a lot of research and found Dipke to be from media and communication background. Did he use his professional intelligence and quickly create lore around a cause we all care about? Again, I don’t know.

Also, according to the party’s website, at least at that time, the highest number of cockroaches were from Mumbai. At the time, protests were held in many cities, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, even Bengaluru. Why wasn’t there a protest in Mumbai? It is one of the biggest metropolises in the world.

As I battled with all these questions, there was also a matter of a bunch of their website’s buttons not working. They still don’t. Or a lot of buttons open much later after you have clicked on them. If this is my laptop or a universal problem, you can let me know.

Eventually, I decided, I shall rent the desk, offer to help with the website, if they are game, offer to make the public or kindness of fellow humans list public and also, if they are game, see if I can mobilize the cockroaches of Mumbai towards a protest. However, I never got around to it.

While I was busy with work, Sonam sir joined in, was dragged away, a march to parliament was organized, and a protest at Shivaji Park in my city happened. Unfortunately, I found out about Shivaji Park after it was over. I am also curious about how this information escaped me because I have been keenly following the CJP activities. Who has this much control over the algorithm that a protest in my city from a party I am keenly following every single day escapes me until there is news of injury and violence.

The violence. This is where my whole research and enquiry went straight out of the window. Violence is wrong. Lathi charge is wrong. Tear gas is wrong. Does the police not have children of their own? Do they themselves not want a better system if their child one day decides to give NEET? If a constable’s child commits suicide over a system that could not only not prevent a leak but also couldn’t handle the consequences of paper leak in a fair way. Why do those who worked hard and did not cheat have to give the exam again? What is the guarantee that they will again top or get the same good marks? If I were preparing for NEET (not that I ever will, I am scared of blood, dead bodies, gore etc. unless they are in a movie) but if I were, if I worked hard and got great marks and was looking forward to getting into a good college and I did this without cheating, with fair means. Now, I hear that the exam I topped in is pointless and I have to appear for it again. What is the guarantee that I will get those marks again? Of course, I will commit suicide.

Today, in the smoking zone, I heard a man say, those who are cowards will die one day or another when talking about NEET. I would like to ask him, is this a person a coward or someone who has been failed by the system? A lot of BJP supporters want to hide their guilt of supporting monsters with flawed logic. Its ok. As Hannah Montana says – everybody makes mistakes, everybody has those days.

So, today, a day after the march to parliament where protestors were detained illegally, incredibly fast FIRs has been filed on quite a lot of them, a lot of them are recovering from injuries, and allegedly, 2 of them died. Officers were incredulous enough to touch women’s private parts when manhandling. There are enough videos circulating about abuse of power. There are protestors saying CCTVs were removed beforehand. A lot of goons weren’t police officers; they weren’t in uniform. Those who were in uniform were not wearing name badges. And there are enough pictures of expired tear gas being fired.

Yesterday, I heard an idiot news reporter on News 18 (my boomer dad watches it) say that why should there be consequences if the minister already took the responsibility of the death of those students who killed themselves. Is he admitting to abetment of suicide in that case? There are indeed consequences to that. It is a legal offence. Is Dharmendra Pradhan admitting he is guilty and that there should be legal proceedings against him?

Now, after all this, the question is no longer, should I join the protest. The answer is yes. We all should but how? Some of us have businesses to run, families to feed and do not have the luxury of endless supply of money. What is the solution. I thought an economic shutdown i.e. a Bharat Bandh would be a great idea but I don’t know how that would work.

A lot of startups or small businesses cannot shut down for even a day. The big businesses are pro-BJP or are politicians in the party. So, how does one join this protest without losing their daily bread?