As questions rage over why Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is not actively supporting activist Sonam Wangchuk‘s hunger strike amid the ongoing Cockroach Janta Party protest, Jignesh Mevani has listed out how the party has been parallelly organising protests and raising issues linked to exam irregularities, jobs, agriculture, etc.
“Rahul Gandhi’s way of standing with people is remembered on the streets, even if media sometimes forgets. Despite losing his father and grandmother to violence, he walked over 4000 km in Bharat Jodo Yatra knowing the threats to his life,” Mevani, Congress’ Gujarat unit’s Working President, wrote on X on Tuesday.
He said that the workers of National Students Union of India (NSUI), Congress’ student wing, and Youth Congress have been protesting on streets against the paper leak scams. “They faced brutal water cannons, lathi charges, and serious injuries. In Haryana’s Kurukshetra, MP Deepender Singh Hooda@DeependerSHooda led from the front. In Madhya Pradesh, Jeetu Patwari @jitupatwari and countless senior leaders and cadre were badly hurt,” Mevani wrote and pointed that all this was ‘ignored’ by media and platforms.
The Congress leader’s remarks came in response to singer and lyricist Swanand Kirkire who questioned the Congress for not starting a hunger strike like Wangchuk.
“The people protesting seem to be fighting for a legitimate cause. They aren’t demanding something abstract like the Jan Lokpal. The students are real, and their grievances appear real,” Kirkire wrote on X.
Amid Rahul’s criticism for not reaching out to Wayanad landslide victims or throwing his weight behind the CJP protests, Mevani listed out many of his outreach initiatives. He said that Rahul launched ‘Chhatron Ki Gunj’, calling it “a big nationwide campaign in 28 cities” against exam irregularities. “This is Congress walking with the youth every step,” he wrote.
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He said that Rahul held interaction with students hit by NEET paper leak scam, met families of students “hit by the system”, met “Mohammad Deepak” the gym trainer who defended a Muslim shopkeeper, and consoled Wayanad landslides “like his own”.
Meanwhile, Wangchuk in an interview with The Indian Express said that it will be the Opposition parties’ “pettiness” if they do not participate in the youth-led protests. He also said the people will reject the Opposition, including the Congress, if they fail to show support for the protest that started with the Cockroach Janta Party’s call over NEET exam irregularities.
The ruling BJP, which has not spoken of any possible talks between the CJP and the government, found a separate opportunity to corner Rahul Gandhi — over his absence from Wayanad, one of the two Lok Sabha constituencies that he won in the 2024 Parliament elections that’s now represented by his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. While he retained the Amethi seat, his family’s conventional stronghold, he handed Wayanad to his sister.
As the two haven’t been seen in Wayanad, the BJP made a poetic jibe at Rahul with popular Bollywood film song lyrics: “Chithhi na koi sandesh, jaane wo kaun sa desh, jahaan tum chale gaye (No letter, no message, who knows which country you’ve gone off to).”
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