People trying to wrap their heads around the sudden emergence of Abhijeet Dipke’s Cockroach Janta Party are making the mistake of trying to assess how many followers he has. Neither the massive online numbers nor the modest turnouts at his meetings is a true indication of the chord he has touched with ordinary folk.
We covered the Jantar Mantar protest in Delhi. It wasn’t easy to be out in the open for long hours in Delhi temperatures, but people came — first in a trickle and then in a steady stream. Each one of them, of different ages and walks of life, seemed to be there by choice and with concerns that mattered to them. We can certainly vouch for the innumerable cockroaches we spoke to. For each cockroach that turned up there would be many who exist but didn’t come.