The Congress’ efforts to bring civil society on board for its protests against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar have seen limited success but an attempt was made to reach out to the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) through advocate Prashant Bhushan on Tuesday, people aware of the details said.
The CJP, however, did not attend the meeting. The move also comes at a time when the Congress leadership is asking civil society and other organisations to join their protests against Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
There was no formal discussion on the outfit during the meeting, the people said. The Congress’ invite signals a shift in stance since the party has, in the past, called the CJP a “proxy” of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and said it is not a recognised political outfit but an activist group. Gandhi’s willingness to accommodate the CJP in the meeting, however, changed the perception, the people said.
Bhushan tried to bring the CJP leadership to a meeting of the INDIA bloc leaders hosted by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi at his residence on Tuesday evening, according to the people cited above.
“All protests are one protest. There are no parallel protests. Waving the Tricolour at Jantar Mantar in a peaceful protest is not a crime. Jailing youth for it is an act of cowardice. Students. Youth. Journalists. The INDIA bloc. Different banners, one cause. All protests are one: citizens demanding their constitutional rights. Jantar Mantar belongs to the people of India. We will reclaim it.
After CJP leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were sent to 5-day judicial custody over alleged breach of security at Jantar Mandar, Gandhi on Wednesday said: “What crime did they commit?
We don’t care who you are,” he said, dubbing the CJP’s efforts as “students tried to protest. After the two CJP leaders were held under preventive arrest, outfit founder Abhijeet Dipke informed a senior Trinamool Congress leader, who coordinated with other opposition leaders for a synchronised condemnation, according to a senior opposition leader. On Monday, Gandhi sought to blur the lines between the Opposition’s protests, student agitations and the CJP’s demonstrations, declaring that all of them were “one protest.
