NEW DELHI: The founder of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), Abhijeet Dipke, on Wednesday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence over Sonam Wangchuk’s ongoing hunger strike.Dipke, in a statement on Wednesday, said, “It’s day 25 of Sonam Wangchuk’s hunger-strike. The PM is yet to break his silence. PM Narendra Modi politics is not just about doing election rallies and winning elections. It’s about being accountable and answerable to people.”“Tell the country why have you not reached out to Sonam Wangchuk yet to resolve the issue and end his hunger-strike? Tell the country why your police was so brutal against the students who were peacefully protesting for more than a month now. Tell the country why Dharmendra Pradhan is so important to you even after so many deaths of students?,” he added further.Earlier in the day, CJP spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka said that the youth of the country would “take them down very badly” if it failed to address the demands of the ongoing protest, describing the July 20 demonstration as only a “trailer”.Speaking to ANI, Ranka called the agitation the “biggest movement in India’s post-independence history” and said larger protests would follow if the government did not respond.“This is the biggest movement in India’s post-independence history…We have said this very clearly: what happened on 20th was a trailer. If the Govt doesn’t agree, millions more will come to Delhi because this time we will not hold back and stay silent…The Govt really needs to get its act together; otherwise, the Youth of this country is going to take them down very badly,” Ranka said.Rejecting allegations that the protesters had turned violent, Ranka said the July 20 march had remained peaceful until police intervened.“A narrative is trying to be built that we will not be peaceful, but we are. The march on 20th was peaceful too but there was chaos only at the point where Police unleashed brutality and beat up students. The youth is sitting here peacefully for 31 days because we follow the principles of Gandhi and Ambedkar,” he said.Ranka also said the protest would continue unless the government assured that no further cases would be registered against demonstrators.“We have placed a very clear demand and Abhijeet Dipke had spoken about it. We will not led any kind of FIR or future FIR be lodged against any protester; the protest won’t end without that,” he said.He added that the leadership of the movement was prepared for legal action.“As far as our team’s leadership is concerned, we are not scared of any FIR, we are ready to be arrested under UAPA and NSA from day 1. Jail is a small price to pay for our fight,” Ranka said.Appealing for broader political support, Ranka said the movement was open to members of all political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party.“Be it any political party, even if they are people from the BJP, they should come together because this is a huge movement and the demand is genuine. We welcome all of them,” he said.The protest, expected to begin at 10.30 am, will also focus on alleged irregularities in the NEET UG examination and the police action against students during the July 20 demonstrations.
