Kolkata: The cockroach controversy pinched an actor, a life science student, a law student and a businessman to come together as ‘fellow cockroaches’ to protest against the NEET exam paper leak and seek resignation of Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan.The pinch for Dedipya Ganguly, an actor by profession and who is pursuing his master’s in mass communication at a private college, came after hearing a ‘cockroach’ remark. But it’s only two to three weeks back when he joined the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) Kolkata. “We are in no way connected to the CJP Delhi. It cannot be possible even if we want as the CJP is not a registered society. CJP Kolkata was a small effort from our side to bring together the youth in the city known for its culture of protest,” Ganguly told TOI.
CJP Jantar Mantar Protest Updates
The Instagram page of CJP Kolkata has some 17.7k followers.Dedipya said that he was politically aware since his high school and has been part of various protests, including the one against CAA-NRC. “But what started as a satire became a movement of youth against a degrading education system,” he said.While the official Cockroach Janta Party, whose founder is Abhijit Dipke, along with their spokesperson, Sonam Wangchuk, sat at Jantar Mantar demanding resignation of Pradhan and accountability from the system, the youth in Bengal were particularly stirred by the lathicharge by Delhi Police on the protesters there.Suman Basak, a second-year life science student from Presidency University and a member of CJP Kolkata, said, “I gave the 2022 NEET examinations, which was my first preference. I know the mental effort it takes to prepare for it. I empathise with the students who are the worst sufferers in these paper leaks. You prepare for these exams. Take all the effort. But then one paper leaks and it is the same pressure all over again, without your fault. How is it justified? Moreover, when you protest against it, you are lathi-charged. They are just students, demanding justice.”He got in touch with other members of the CJP Kolkata through Dedipya. The members ranged from civic society members to students of different colleges and varsities, including Calcutta University.“There is no official CJP platform from Kolkata,” Saurav Das, chief spokesperson of Cockroach Janta Party, said. But there are many who proudly claimed themselves to be the ‘cockroaches of Kolkata’. One such is ‘The Calcutta Cockroach Movement (TCCM)’, which has some 1,500 members.The group includes law students from govt and private colleges. It started as an online movement. “We got to know the date of the protest later. There were protests taking place in different states of the country, it was an unpalatable fact that it would take place,” Debabrata Adhikari, a private college law student and a member of TCCM, said.They used to have Google Meets for the past few days. “We democratically decided to sink in with the existing protest which took place from Sealdah to Esplanade…The group may now break down after minister Pradhan resigned. Our purpose has been served,” Adhikari said.Another cockroach is Md Meraj, a businessman in footwear in central Kolkata’s Tiretta bazaar. Meraj’s association with the educational movement dates back to nearly eight years ago when Jorasanko Ummed Foundation was formed. The prime objective was to financially support kids who do not have financial means to get education.Meraj, the president of the foundation, said that they had planned a protest on Sunday. Though not a student himself, Meraj has two daughters who are schoolgoers. “The issue affected all kids. It was about their future, it was about my daughters’ future. But since the students’ demands were met we didn’t conduct a rally on Sunday. Moreover, if some miscreant enters and tries to disrupt the protest then the blame would be shifted on us,” he said.
