A Congress-cockroach clash? Rahul Gandhi seeks joint resistance, CJP calls out liberal ecosystem

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's attempt to bring disparate protests against the BJP-led Centre onto a common platform has coincided with an ugly public spat between his party's leaders and the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). The tussle, which had been brewing since the CJP's Assam school inspections, turned into a storm this week.

Rahul Gandhi launched the digital "Satyagraha" initiative on October 3, saying isolated struggles needed to come together, and promising his support "in Parliament, on the streets, through letters, wherever I am needed".

Almost simultaneously, CJP leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das accused a "self-declared liberal ecosystem" of trying to denounce CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and behaving as though protecting democracy and the "thekedar (or custodian) of the Constitution".

Neither Ranka nor Das named the Congress, but Das pointedly referred to "another party" besides the BJP, and several Congress leaders and workers have since responded to the remarks as criticism directed at their camp. The heated exchanges between the CJP and the Congress leaders reveal friction over who gets space, credit and leadership in protests that target the BJP government and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The issues that both the Congress and the CJP are highlighting are one and the same.

The friction didn't begin with Rahul Gandhi launching the Satyagraha platform. It had surfaced more clearly during the CJP's school audit campaign in Assam.

CJP co-convenor Ashutosh Ranka and over 40 volunteers were detained ahead of a meeting in Guwahati, and Congress spokesperson Reetam Singh said Congress workers helped secure their release. Singh alleged that Ranka nevertheless refused to meet Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi because the CJP had been told its outreach was an AAP initiative.

"An entire 'self-declared liberal' ecosystem has been activated to denounce Abhijeet Dipke and the fact that he has been able to capture the imagination of millions of Indians after a LONG, LONG time," Ranka posted on X on October 3, without naming the Congress.

"It's a very big problem. A certain section -- not just the BJP -- another party thinks 'saving India, saving the Constitution' is only their job. They are self-declared liberals and self-declared thekedars of the Constitution," Saurav Das said on X.

This verbal fire from the CJP comes even as civil society and Opposition parties, including the Congress, protested demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar's removal, citing his alleged failure to ensure the Election Commission's impartiality and independence.

RAHUL GANDHI CALLS FOR STRUGGLES TO UNITE

Amid the protests in several cities, including New Delhi and Mumbai, Rahul Gandhi on Saturday launched Satyagraha, a digital platform designed to map protests and connect people fighting over issues ranging from education and examinations to land, farmers' rights, women's rights and the concerns of Dalits and OBCs.

"Across the country, people are fighting for their rights -- and too often, fighting alone," he wrote while announcing the initiative. "Gen Z, students, farmers, Adivasis, Dalits, women -- every struggle has its own story. But a lone voice is often easier to silence."

The Congress leader said the idea was to bring these voices together and help people discover others fighting similar battles. Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, also promised to support the grievances through Parliament, street protests, letters or other interventions.

As of 5 pm Monday, 28,981 voices had been raised from all 28 states and eight Union Territories on Rahul Gandhi's Satyagraha platform. Education access topped the concerns with 5,257 submissions, followed by corruption at 5,138 and caste-based discrimination at 2,401.

The timing of Rahul Gandhi's Satyagraha is significant. The CJP has emerged victorious from the Jantar Mantar protests and insisted that it was a decentralised movement independent of established political parties. However, Congress leaders have accused the CJP of being backed by the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Incidentally, as the CJP expanded its "School Thik Karo" campaign across states, the Congress too stepped up its activism on the issue, with its Rajasthan unit announcing a statewide drive to inspect government schools.

Earlier, both contested seeking the removal of Dharmendra Pradhan as the Union Education Minister. The Congress and the CJP ran parallel protests.

In May, as the CJP's cockroach campaign went viral, the Indian Youth Congress launched its own "Indian Youth Cockroaches" campaign and projected itself as the "real cockroach" with a presence it said was on the streets, not just online. The IYC used the same branding to protest against the NEET paper leak, unemployment and fuel prices. This had raised questions if the Congress was trying to tap into the CJP's sudden popularity.

CJP'S 'SELF-DECLARED LIBERAL' JIBE

Even as the protests progressed, and Rahul Gandhi pitched for a unified resistance, leaders of the CJP launched an attack on a "non-BJP party" for "activating an entire self-declared liberal ecosystem".

CJP's Ashutosh Ranka accused what he called the "self-declared liberal ecosystem" of being activated against Dipke. He said the same ecosystem existed largely on Twitter (now called X) but considered itself the "sole protector of democracy". Saurav Das was even more explicit about the political nature of his criticism without actually naming the party.

"It's a very salty ecosystem, acting worse than the BJP's ecosystem sometimes. They must realise that they can't divide and rule through such tactics. Their massive failures over the years have led us to this moment where the young have to show the way," he wrote on X.

Das added that they should "zip it on us and focus on how to support the young", calling the critics "total buffoons".

CJP founder Dipke sought to frame the dispute as a distraction from the movement's purpose. Dipke said he had "a lot to say about the constant attempts by some to discredit the CJP", but argued that there was little point engaging in the fight.

"The youth is already frustrated with exactly this kind of bickering among established political parties, where everyone seems more concerned about their own prominence than the people they claim to represent," Dipke wrote.

CONGRESS LEADERS REACT TO CJP'S UNNAMED CRITICISM

Though the social media posts by the CJP leaders did not name the Congress, leaders and members of Rahul Gandhi's party interpreted the criticism as being directed at them.

Congress leader Vijay Thottathil questioned why CJP protesters could "roam free in Mumbai" while NSUI and Indian Youth Congress protesters were detained, and asked why CJP received greater media coverage. When Saurav Das replied that the Congress should "rethink its strategy" rather than blame others for its failures, Thottathil asked whether the BJP-led administration considered the CJP's agitation a "friendly one".

Congress "worker" Aditya Goswami on X urged Saurav Das to "show some maturity". He argued that the CJP had been created as a pressure group against the ruling establishment, not against the principal Opposition party. "And if you really want to take on the Congress instead of BJP, form a political party and bring it on," Goswami wrote on X.

Amid the back-and-forth, author and Congress member Tushar Gandhi called on his party to restrain its supporters rather than allow the dispute to deepen. "The Congress should rein in its propagandists, the CJP, AISA and the Congress are fighting a common foe, not the time to take pot shots at one another," he wrote on X.

Earlier during CJP's Assam campaign, Congress spokesperson Reetam Singh alleged that his party workers had supported CJP members after their detention in Assam, only for Ranka to refuse a meeting with MP Gaurav Gogoi. Singh also accused the CJP of taking instructions from AAP, an allegation that cuts directly against the Dipke-led outfit's claim of political independence.

The row between the CJP and the Congress captures the contradictions in the opposition space, where the Rahul Gandhi-led party is trying to grab a bigger share of the pie even as the fledgling outfit fires up the imagination of the youths.

While the Congress and the CJP are broadly raising some of the same issues, including questions over the Election Commission, several Opposition parties have backed the CJP's protests. Mamata Banerjee, Aaditya Thackeray and leaders from the Samajwadi Party, Left, NCP (SP) and AAP have supported or engaged with the movement even as Rahul Gandhi is seeking to put scattered struggles on a Satyagraha map.