The BJP and the RSS are trying to dismiss the influence of the viral online platform Cockroach Janta Party, portraying it as a foreign-driven campaign and ruling out education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation over the multiple exam scams.
“Some foreign powers are trying to create unrest in India and some political parties here have also become a part of these anti-India conspiracies,” BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh said, responding to the CJP’s Jantar Mantar protest on Saturday.
“They are trying to create confusion and misunderstanding in the minds of Gen Z.”
Allegations of a “foreign hand” and “anti-national motives” have long been among the BJP’s political weapons of choice, wielded frequently against the Congress and the Gandhi family.
BJP leaders are now highlighting that CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke was based in the US and had returned to India only on Saturday to join the Jantar Mantar protest and demand Pradhan’s resignation.
New BJP president Nitin Nabin had framed this line of response to the CJP during his Jharkhand visit on Saturday, coinciding with the Jantar Mantar protest that attracted students, parents, young jobseekers and Left parties and activists, among others.
In an apparent swipe at Dipke, Nabin had said those “sitting abroad” could not dictate terms to India’s youth, asserting that young Indians would reject “negative politics”.
Party insiders said that permission for the Jantar Mantar protest had been granted because the government feared that any attempt to suppress it could prove counterproductive.
Senior BJP leaders believe that the movement lacks the strength to pose a serious challenge and is being amplified by political actors who have failed to gain electoral traction.
“The offline protest of the online outfit was being promoted by the same people who got repeatedly rejected by the people in the electoral arena,” a BJP leader said.
Ruling party managers have also dismissed any possibility of Pradhan stepping down to defuse the agitation.
Drawing a parallel with the NDA government’s refusal to seek then foreign affairs minister Sushma Swaraj’s resignation during the 2015 Lalit Modi controversy, a Union minister said the government’s position remained unchanged.
“This government does not buckle under pressure,” the minister asserted.
BJP leaders, however, would not rule out Pradhan being quietly shifted to another ministry during a ministerial shuffle. There is speculation of an organisational and ministerial overhaul in the second half of June or early July.
The BJP is also trying to profile the participants at the Jantar Mantar protest, believing it would help counter the movement more effectively.
Party leaders have argued that the protesters represented only a narrow section of Gen Z, and that large numbers of young people from peasant and labourer families, particularly in rural India, continued to benefit from and support the government’s welfare programmes.
“The sons and daughters of the poor farmers and labourers are also Gen Z. Many young men and women toiling in the rural areas are also Gen Z. They know how their lives have changed in the Narendra Modi years,” the minister said.
The BJP and its ecosystem are also scouring the slogans chanted at the protest, looking for anything they can label “anti-national”.
RSS-linked Hindi weekly Panchjanya and its X handle circulated selective clips from the protest.
In one video, a participant is purportedly heard objecting to alleged “azadi” slogans,saying he would not have joined the protest had he known about this earlier.The post was accompanied with the caption: “Why the ‘Azadi’ slogans at the CJP protest?”
Another video features two youths who appear to express support for Delhi riots accused Umar Khalid, prompting Panchjanya to question their understanding of national issues and attack the protest and its supporters.
“These people don’t even know about the Chicken Neck route that connects India’s northeastern states to the rest of the country. This is the Gen Z that supports CJP,” Panchjanya remarked.