The protesters, led by CJP founder Abhijit Debaki, used unserious memes to raise serious issues at the rally in Delhi on Saturday.
As the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) staged its second major protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Saturday, apart from the main issues raised by the protesters, the posters they brought also highlighted the issue.
The protesters, led by CJP founder Abhijit Debaki, used unserious memes to raise serious issues at the rally. Pop culture references took center stage as people held up signs they brought with them. From the cult favorite ‘Gopi Vahu’ washing a laptop gif to the recently viral #Melodi clip, there has been almost no mention of the youth-led protest. Follow live updates on the CJP protest here.
A look at a few of the posters that caught the eye.
A reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni in May also appeared in one of the posters. “Paper leakage kab band hoga? (When will paper leakage stop?) Melody khao, khud jan jao,” one poster read.
When Prime Minister Modi met Meloni in Italy, he had gifted the leader a box of Melody candy. “Prime Minister Modi brought us a gift, it’s Melody,” the Italian Prime Minister said in the video, holding the box of chocolates. “Thank you for the gift,” she wrote as a caption. The two were seen laughing the entire time. The single post achieved more than 13 million likes.
A recent political reference was also seen in one of the posters which read “Raghav Chadha Missing”. The former AAP leader recently took the leap and joined the BJP along with six others. The sudden merger of seven Rajya Sabha MPs raised many eyebrows in April.
Raghav Chadha, along with leaders Ashok Mittal and Sandeep Pathak, announced the merger of seven AAP MPs with the BJP.
Another interesting poster had the words “Rishte me toh hum tumhare malik hain, naam hai We the People of India” written on it.
This was the CJP’s second protest in Delhi, led by its founder Abhijit Debaki. The outfit was established as a satire a few weeks ago, but it quickly became a sensation among young people. Debaki, who was in Boston until earlier this month, recently returned, and has since been leading protests across India.
The main demand of these protests is the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over discrepancies with exams – NEET-UG paper leak in May, and issues with the On-Screen Marking System (OSM) for verifying CBSE Class 12 board exam papers.
The protest took place on Saturday, just a day before the NEET-UG re-exam on June 21.
High drama in CJP protest
While the protest was largely peaceful, some drama unfolded after 5pm when cops began asking protesters to vacate, saying the deadline for the protest had passed. However, Abhijit Deepki remained where he was and continued urging people to reach Jantar Mantar by 6 pm to demand Pradhan’s resignation.
From the protest site, Debke also released a video message, in which he claimed the police would arrest him.
He had called on his supporters to carry a ‘thali’ (plate) and ‘chamash’ (spoon), and compared it to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call during the Covid-19 pandemic to bang utensils.
