Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke on Monday pushed back against comparisons between the recent student protests at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar and the 2024 uprising in Bangladesh, saying such links were being used to defame the Indian movement.
Dipke’s remarks came a day after exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin, speaking at a press conference in Kolkata, said a short video clip of the CJP demonstration had reminded her of the July 2024 student agitation that led to the ouster of then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
“It was like that. That student movement in Bangladesh fooled us. Because we thought the students wanted to abolish the quota system. Sheikh Hasina had also agreed to their demands, but ultimately the government fell. Later, we found that jihadis (Islamic fundamentalists) were behind that movement. The fallout has not been good for Bangladesh. Jihadis have taken over power there,” Nasrin said.
She added that the visuals of the Indian protest had filled her with apprehension, noting that not every student gathering is necessarily pro-democracy. Nasrin stressed she was not equating the two movements but highlighting what she saw as troubling similarities based on her experience of the Bangladesh events.
The CJP agitation, which began as a satirical response to a judicial remark and grew into a 37-day sit-in focused on exam irregularities and the demand for the resignation of then Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, ended after the government accepted key demands, including Pradhan’s resignation.
Responding to Nasrin’s comments, Dipke said the protests in Bangladesh and Nepal were being invoked to malign the CJP. “Protests in Bangladesh and Nepal are being used to defame us, but we are different,” he stated.
Dipke also indicated that the movement’s responsibilities had increased and that its organisational team would be expanded. He separately cautioned that the group could resume protests if remaining assurances, including compensation for families of students who died by suicide linked to the NEET paper leak, were not fulfilled.
