The BJP started with the avowed intention of making India Congress-mukt. Congress was, still is, the principal opposition with a pan-India footprint. So, ‘Congress-mukt’ should have been read as synonymous for ‘Opposition-mukt’. The serial decimation of regional parties has made this amply clear. What has been afoot, especially in the last couple of years, is its sequence aimed at making India a curious specimen of a ‘one-nation, one-party’ democracy.

It was against this backdrop that the Cockroach Janata Party spontaneously emerged as a counterbalancing force. But for the CJP’s effective intervention in the dynamics of our national life, we would not have reached where we are at present. Very likely, the crucial report on the Election Commission would not have been published, and the INDI-Alliance would not have attained its present degree of motivation, vigour and cohesion. Ironically, the controversial Gyanesh Kumar-driven SIR has proved a shot in the arm for the CJP. It has made people across India resonate with the CJP in a special way. In a short span of time, the CJP has become a fresh sign of hope for the people, as well as the foremost outlet for the pent-up frustration and anger of India’s youth.

After all, it was the mounting frustration and desperation of the country’s youth that catalysed the birth of the CJP. The message embedded in the birth of CJP must be noted. When a ruling dispensation succeeds in suppressing Opposition parties one after another, the people have to rise and play the role of the Opposition. Opposition-less democracy is de facto dictatorship. The good news is that the people are the best custodians of their welfare, rights and interests. People-power is the one force against which political machinations of every description prove powerless. Although the CJP is not an official political party, its campaigns and interventions increasingly engage with political issues and policy debates, giving its activities a distinctly political dimension.

It is at this juncture that the CJP’s functioning will inevitably be judged by several critical factors: its associations and disassociations, its likes and dislikes, and, above all, whom it supports and whom it chooses not to support – particularly in its dealings with political parties, both at the Centre and in the states. Why does this matter? Ideology, political philosophy and political vocabulary are critical elements of democracy. Yet, given the state of affairs in the country, it may suffice to say that, in practice, they have come to matter little.

If........

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