Congress Party Should Not Forget That It was the Cockroach Janata Party That Lit the Flame of Rebellion
- It is also true that Rahul Gandhi has appealed for solidarity before the blockbuster success of the October 12 protest.
Before condemning the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) wholesale, let’s pause and think of how hopeless and bleak the political outlook had seemed before May-June of this year.
Rahul Gandhi had been brave and steadfast in his campaign against vote chori (stealing) but he didn’t get the traction he deserved. What he got in good measure was skepticism and abuse from the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) IT cell and little to no response from the Congress Party’s allies.
The deadlock in which we were all trapped needed to be broken. I have commented on this before, but feel this aspect needs retelling in view of the ceaseless gaslighting of the CJP, mainly by the Congress Party.
Dismiss it if you must, but the CJP’s arrival shattered the uneasy quietude of the time and gifted to us the thrilling phenomenon of GenZ.
Would the young revolt have happened on its own? Even without giving the full credit for the uprising to the CJP, can it be anybody’s case that the CJP had no role at all to play in it? It was a catalyst at the minimum, the matchstick that lit the flame of rebellion in the teen crowd.
Dismiss it if you must, but the CJP’s arrival shattered the uneasy quietude of the time and gifted to us the thrilling phenomenon of GenZ.
Recall that many of us had been in a trap (partly self-made) of not being able to freely express our opinions, let alone directly criticizing the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo. The strongest oped one read avoided mentioning Modi by name. Voldemort-like, he remained unnamed. The fear we felt was gnawing and ever present.
The kids with their chutzpah —memes and songs and the delightful chhota bandar (little monkey) — showed us how easy it is to be fearless, how really simple and liberating it is to confront the mightiest of authority. In fact, I will go to the extent of crediting the Indian Express scoop on the Election Commission to this lifting of fear.
A comparison of newspaper reporting before and after May-June 2026 will establish this. Now newspapers are in a competition to produce the best exposes. Modi and Shah are being lampooned and disparaged with an abandon unimaginable before.
Let us not forget the CJP’s role in this, please. The CJP lot don’t deserve the unrestrained abuse they are getting from the Congress rank and file, nor the constant chant that they are agents of BJP-RSS.
With his grace and calls for harmony and engagement, Rahul Gandhi has shown the way. He appealed for solidarity before the blockbuster success of the October 12 protest. He has done this again by condemning the arrests of Saurav Dass and Ashutosh Ranka — for the ‘crime’ of trying to reclaim Jantar Mantar as a protest site.
Will the arrests and lodging in Tihar jail of Dass and Ranka satisfy the attack dogs in the INC and their following? Or will it require third degree in prison for Dass and Ranka to be acknowledged as fellow warriors in the fight for free and fair elections in Indian democracy?
Vidya Subrahmaniam is an Indian journalist and political commentator. She served as the Associate Editor at The Hindu, and a Senior Fellow at The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy.