Activist Sonam Wangchuk on Sunday began a hunger strike at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar where the Cockroach Janta Party has been holding a protest since June 20. The protesters are demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged mismanagement in the conduct of competitive exams.
Hundreds of protesters gathered at the site on Sunday.
Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke alleged on Sunday that the Delhi Police cut off sanitation facilities at Jantar Mantar as Wangchuk began his hunger strike. “No water connection and hygiene measures,” he alleged on social media.
Dipke said that despite repeated requests and citing Wangchuk’s age and health concerns, the police was “not cooperating and we suspect that other such basic facilities too will be cut off”.
Earlier on Sunday, Dipke alleged that several farmers’ leaders from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab were being put under house arrest to prevent them from joining the protest in Delhi.
After holding its first protest at Jantar Mantar on June 6, the Cockroach Janta Party – which started as a satirical political campaign – organised demonstrations in several cities demanding the resignation of Pradhan.
Wangchuk had participated in the protest in Delhi on June 6.
The campaign was launched on May 16 in response to reports of remarks by Chief Justice Surya Kant on the previous day comparing some unemployed youngsters to “cockroaches”. Within a week, the campaign had garnered more than 22 million followers on social media platform Instagram.
The chief justice claimed on May 16 that he had been misquoted by sections of the media and that it was baseless to say that he criticised young people in general. Kant claimed he had specifically criticised “those who have entered professions like the Bar [legal profession] with the aid of fake and bogus degrees”.
Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.
Also read:
- Why India’s Opposition parties should be worried about the cockroach movement
- Watching the Cockroach Janta Party – cautiously
- ‘We want accountability’: Voices from the Cockroach Janta Party’s protest in Pune
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