‘A thali and a chammach’: At Cockroach Party's protest in Delhi, a Covid-era dig at PM Modi with plates and spoons

THe roach Janta company (CJP) is holding its indorse john major dissent at Delhi's Jantar Mantar on Saturday, with supporters arriving carrying plates and spoons — a pointed evocation of PM Narendra Modi's 2020 call to bang plates “in solidarity with Covid frontline workers”, now repurposed by this satirically-named outfit as a demand for the education minister to resign.CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke did not spell out the clapback to the 2020 pandemic-era appeal. In a video message released on Friday, he only said, “All the cockroaches joining tomorrow's protest at Jantar Mantar should carry a thali and a chammach with you. You know the rest of the story.”The 2020 recallThe rest of the story dates back to March 22, 2020, when as part of a lockdown termed ‘Janata Curfew’, PM Modi had asked citizens to clang plates and utensils for five minutes at 5 pm as a mark of solidarity with those at the frontline of the pandemic response. The gesture has since become a recurring motif for satirising the Modi administration.The protest at Jantar Mantar, scheduled to begin at 1 pm, is expected to draw students from Delhi and neighbouring states mucb as it did earlier this month at the CJP's first on-ground demonstration sonce beiong formed on X and Instagram last month. Tight security is in place, with CCTV cameras installed at and around Jantar Mantar for real-time monitoring.The group's central demand remains the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET-UG medical entrance exam paper leak and related issues. A retest for the NEET-UG is scheduled for June 21.What Dipke saidDipke, speaking from his village of Santuk Pimpri in Hingoli, Maharashtra, before departing for Delhi, also criticised the Centre's decision to temporarily block messaging app Telegram ahead of the NEET retest.“This is like closing a road because there are potholes instead of repairing it. Banning Telegram makes no sense,” he told reporters, news agency PTI reported. He also claimed five more students had died by suicide over the issue.In an open letter to the PM, Dipke urged the Centre to provide ₹1 crore in compensation to families of students who died by suicide amid examination-related controversies, claiming 11 students had died by suicide in recent weeks."I am writing to you today with a heavy heart, to bring your urgent attention to an escalating crisis that threatens the very future of our nation — the lives and mental well-being of our young students," Dipke said in the letter.He reiterated the demand to sack Pradhan: “The Cockroach Janta Party has been demanding the resignation of the education minister for the past month and has been protesting across the country for our demands. All that we students want is to see some accountability for the loss of lives.”He was also asked about the Shiv Sena (UBT) rebellion that has seen six of its nine Lok Sabha MPs switching sides. Dipke took aim at politicians more broadly. “These people should be ashamed. A girl, NEET student, committed suicide, and she lived merely 500 metres away from the residence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis,” he claimed, “They got no phone call or any kind of help.”He further said, “They (ruling politicians) don't have money to give to the families of the students, and are using money to procure MLAs and MPs.”Saturday's demonstration is the CJP's second protest at Jantar Mantar this month, following a rally on June 6, and comes after demonstrations in Pune, Lucknow, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Jaipur.But Dipke has said the CJP — founded online on May 16 after Chief Justice of India Surya Kant made some remarks using the words “cockroaches” and “parasites” — will not contest elections."Why should we contest elections? If everyone in this country has to contest elections to demand their rights, how will it work?" the former AAP social media manager told PTI.