The Cockroach Janta Party said on Tuesday that a Supreme Court directive from earlier in the day allowing investigation in existing cases registered against those who took part in the youth protests last week was “wholly unacceptable”, and described it as “uninformed”.
Saurav Das, the chief spokesperson for the political campaign, said that the group has a “credible apprehension” that the Union government and Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states may “seek to use and weaponise” the order to continue filing and investigating first information reports against individual protesters and “subject them to great harassment”.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Supreme Court had allowed the authorities in Delhi and other states to proceed with investigations in cases that have been registered.
However, it directed that no coercive action should be taken against protesting students and that minors who had been detained should be released, as long as they did not have any “criminal antecedents”.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant also directed the police authorities to preserve all surveillance camera footage, drone footage and camera recordings relating to the protests as a measure of “abundant precaution”.
Das, however, said in a social media post that the direction allowing investigations to continue “stands in direct contradiction” with the assurance given to the Cockroach Janta Party by the Union government on Saturday that FIRs against protesters would be withdrawn and that none of them would be targeted only for participating in the demonstrations.
“A solemn public assurance given to thousands of young students and protesters cannot be diluted, undermined, or rendered meaningless through subsequent legal developments, in a surreptitious manner,” Das said. “It only results in breach of public trust.”
He further stated that the court’s interim order still places the onus of withdrawing or pursuing cases on the executive and underlined that “the court has not mandated that governments must definitely continue with the FIRs”.
Das went on to highlight that the Union government’s deadline to honour the guarantees that it made to the CJP on July 25 expires on Tuesday.
“Failing this, and as previously declared, the Cockroach Janta Party will have no option but to resume its nationwide protest to protect the students and young protesters who stood up not for themselves alone, but for the future of this nation,” Das added.
Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the campaign echoed this stand, and said the CJP would “respond with a massive peaceful protest soon” if the police harassment of students continues.
He urged the government “to stop targeting and witch-hunting students”.
The agitation in Delhi started on June 6, when the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign began a protest at Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union education minister at the time, over the alleged irregularities in the conduct of competitive exams. Solidarity protests were held in several states. Pradhan resigned on Saturday.
The Cockroach Janta Party has maintained that it withdrew its call for a nationwide protest on Saturday only after the Union government assured it that “no punitive action would be taken against any protester, either now or in the future, in any BJP-ruled or NDA [National Democratic Alliance]-ruled states”.
Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.
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