Online satirical platform Cockroach Janta Party held its first media conference on Wednesday, outlining plans for its offline protest on Saturday in the national capital and demanding the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over exam irregularities.
In its first public appearance, the party’s chief spokesperson, Saurav Das, addressed the media along with spokespersons Vijeta Dahiya and Ashutosh Ranka to demand accountability and answer questions regarding the outfit’s funding.
The three spokespersons were appointed a few hours before the media conference. Das is an investigative journalist, Dahiya a political researcher and Ranka a filmmaker, former management consultant and an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and the London School of Economics.
Das said CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke would land at New Delhi airport at 8am on June 6 to organise a peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar. Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk has shown interest in joining him.
“Dipke has called upon his supporters to come to the airport and receive him, and all of them, along with Sonam Wangchuk ji, will then head towards Parliament Street and seek permission for a protest at Jantar Mantar. We invite everybody from all political shades to come and be part of this movement,” Das said, calling upon protesters, both from the ruling party and the Opposition, to join the movement minus political banners. He said the theme of the movement concerned the youth.
“Our only demand is the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan,” Das said, asserting that the CJP was a youth political movement demanding accountability. The three speakers blamed Pradhan for the NEET paper leak, the CBSE on-screen marking irregularities and other related issues.