Who Is the Pappu Now? |
Listen to this article:
When the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) launched its protest at Jantar Mantar in June, there was no dearth of sceptics. The government didn’t take it seriously to begin with. On the other side, there was wariness and doubt: this is AAP’s ‘B-team’; CJP is a joke, but Sonam Wangchuk is a good man; CJP has been propped up by the government, to distract from the Ram Temple scam; the BJP goes soft on Hindu boys; Gen Z only turns up on the phone, not on the ground; the CJP’s biggest problem is its lack of ideology.
I felt that they might be on to something. The reason: Why would any young person in their right mind take on the Modi-Shah combine? GoI’s dirty tricks department is well-stocked. The fact that a bunch of greenhorn leaders were challenging the government so loudly and fearlessly was enough to make one sit up and listen.
Remember the conversations around Dipke when he was going to land in India? Most felt it was a foregone conclusion that he would be arrested at the airport. I was under the impression that the present generation was an extension of their parents’; bhajans had been replaced by bhajan-clubbing— that was about it. Such was the air of 360 degree pessimism. Look at things now – the young leaders have become household names. India’s youth cohort, cutting across divisions, has emerged as a hero. In CJP’s own words on their website: ‘We have migrated from online shitposting to a serious, socialist democratic front’.
CJP’s quiet achievement has been to break the Liberal vs Bhakt dichotomy. For the duration of the CJP protest we hardly ever heard the word being used. That simple linguistic recasting, Government vs Cockroaches, instead of Hindu Right vs Liberals, enabled the movement to widen its ambit. Like Zohran Mamdani repeating the mantra of ‘affordability’, until it was drilled into citizens’ heads, the CJP fetishised the word ‘accountability’— a neutral term. As the movement grew into a rainbow coalition, the quantum of rage and resentment in society became amply clear.
Modi has become an object of ridicule
The government has stuck to its antiquated playbook: harassment of protestors; doxxing by Hindutva foot-soldiers; ordering social media companies to take down posts; blaming an........