Activist Sonam Wangchuk has said that the founders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) have political ambitions, based on his assessment of their role during the student movement at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.
Speaking in a podcast with Prakhar Gupta, Wangchuk said he did not believe the CJP founders were without political aspirations. However, he also said that having political ambitions was not necessarily a problem.
“As far as their political ambitions are concerned, I think they do have political ambitions,” Wangchuk said, adding that this was his assessment and that the founders had not directly told him that they intended to enter politics.
Wangchuk said he did not consider the CJP founders to be “saints” who had no political ambitions and added that there was “nothing wrong with that”.
Wangchuk says young people should enter politics
Wangchuk said he would encourage more young people to enter politics, either by joining existing political parties or by forming new political organisations.
According to him, young people taking up public issues and subsequently entering politics was a normal development.
“If you start your career by taking up such issues, I think that is a good thing,” he said.
Student movement should remain apolitical
Wangchuk also spoke about his association with CJP founders Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka during a nearly two-month-long student protest demanding the removal of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
He said that while the CJP founders could have political ambitions, he had told them that the student movement itself should remain separate from the political agenda of any party.
“Throughout the time I was on that stage, I kept telling them that any of you may have political ambitions, and it is actually a good thing to have young and emerging leaders. But maintain the sanctity of this platform. Keep it neutral, apolitical and a pressure group,” Wangchuk said.
According to Wangchuk, maintaining the movement’s political neutrality was important because it allowed the campaign to attract support without being identified with a particular political party.
‘People did not associate movement with BJP, Congress or AAP’
Wangchuk said the student movement had gained support because people did not associate it with the BJP, Congress or Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
He said the campaign was instead viewed as a student movement and that maintaining this identity was important.
“I was happy to see that they maintained it that way,” Wangchuk said.
Abhijeet Dipke’s previous AAP association
Wangchuk also addressed criticism he faced when he joined the student movement, particularly questions over CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke’s previous association with the Aam Aadmi Party.
Wangchuk said this did not concern him and that he saw no problem with someone having previously worked with a political party.
He distinguished between an individual’s political background or future political ambitions and the character of the student movement itself, which he said needed to remain apolitical.
