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It is a good augury for the Republic that the INDIA opposition bloc with as many as 23 parties in attendance has regrouped, and agreed on a five-point agenda of action to begin with.

Among the notable absentees have been the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

One dare speculate that the DMK, which is currently in a lover’s quarrel with the Congress for the latter having deserted it to go over to the new successful kid on the block, will think many times before ever aligning with the right-wing, Brahminical Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) it the Union government should such a choice confront it.

As to the AAP, its political ambitions clearly stretch beyond any state-level successes, and thus, viewing the Congress as its natural adversary, it is unlikely to change its mind.

Then there is the ultra-new Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) around which speculations are rife dime a dozen.

Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.

And not without cause: how is it, it is asked, that permission to demonstrate in large numbers for a whole day at Jantar Mantar was granted to it when hardly any oppressed group of citizens, be it farmers or any others, are almost never so allowed to gather there; or why while demonstrations mounted by the Indian Youth Congress and the National Students’ Union of India in city after city are routinely lathicharged and water-cannoned etc, the CJP event faced no such strong arm measures.

Be that as it may, a reliable read of this new breathtaking occurrence may for now come directly from the founder of the CJP as recorded in an elaborate conversation with Frontline, rather than from the many secondary interpretations that now........

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