CJP Protest Day 6: Abhijeet Dipke thanks supporters for 'home cooked food'

The second major Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest at Jantar Mantar entered its sixth day on June 25 as its founder Abhijeet Dipke and his supporters continued their indefinite sit-in in an attempt to demand the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Abhijeet Dipke shared a heartfelt post on Thursday in which he expressed his gratitude to supporters for “bringing home cooked food”.

Posting on X, Abhijeet Dipke said, “I would like to thank every brother, sister and especially every mother who brought me home cooked food. Your kindness, love and support gives us strength to continue this movement.”

Despite the turbulent climate, many have offered their support to the 30-year-old political communication strategist, who is demanding government accountability for the NEET UG irregularities and ₹1 crore compensation for the families of NEET aspirants who died by suicide. The protesters were asked to leave the site at 5:00 pm on Saturday 20 June, but defied police instructions and refused to withdraw from the site.

Along with the post, Abhijeet Dipke shared a video in which a young Muslim woman in a burqa can be seen offering water to the CJP founder. The caption of the post read: “She was looking for Abhijit Dipke as she brought food for him which she prepared with her own hands.”

While some volunteers bring fruit, some food and others water, the youth-led organization continues to demonstrate over alleged paper leaks and investigations. In another post, the CJP founder shared a picture of “puran poli” and wrote, “Sent by CUET student’s grandmother.”

Several people from different communities came forward to support students, parents and even police personnel by distributing food, fruits, drinking water and cold drinks in the summer heat, including a Sikh volunteer. An Instagram account called ‘mo.of.everything’ shared videos of volunteers supporting the protest. A volunteer named Ashu from Ludhiana’s Punjab said he cleans the area around Jantar Mantar every day and carries 3 liters of water with disinfectants to the protest site.

Another volunteer named Junaid said he was serving cold water, tea, breakfast and pakoras to the protesters. He also claimed to support the demonstration by serving rajma rice and curry for lunch. He further noted that everyone is contributing in their own way, some are distributing Frooti, some are supplying water and others are donating food packets.

Abhijeet Dipke on Wednesday alleged that the authorities have not explained the reason for blocking CJP’s social media accounts. He made these remarks after appearing before a committee of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) regarding the detention of CJP’s X account.

Hinting that the move was aimed at suppressing their voices, he said, “Everything is confidential; you should have kept the NEET paper confidential as well. Why was it leaked? These suicides would not have happened,” PTI reported. The statement came a day after Dharmendra Pradhan accused the organization of being a “B-team of terrorists”.

He questioned the government’s response, asking: “We are asking for votes? We are asking for justice. We are tax payers, our parents are tax payers and you call us terrorists. Aren’t you ashamed?”