Cockroach Janta Party founder urges tribal hunger strikers to march on Mumbai
Abhijit Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party, told tribal students protesting at Nashik's Idgah Maidan to end their hunger strike and head to Mumbai to press the government.
Tribal students have been occupying Idgah Maidan in Nashik for over two weeks, staging an indefinite hunger strike over inadequate facilities in their hostels, including lack of drinking water, functional toilets, proper bedding and fresh food. Abhijit Dipke, who founded the Cockroach Janta Party, visited the protest and highlighted that the poor conditions are symptomatic of a broader failure in tribal education across India.
He pointed to the Rs 8,500 crore held in the PM CARES Fund as a potential source of funding to overhaul these schools. Rather than persisting with the hunger strike, Dipke advised the students to shift their tactics to a march on Mumbai, the state’s power centre, to compel officials to act. He also criticized the state leadership for ignoring the grievances and invited Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to join him and the media on a tour of Vidarbha schools, challenging the chief minister’s claim that 75% of government schools are in good condition.
Why it matters
The call for a Mumbai march could amplify tribal students' demands and pressure the government to allocate funds for improving their schools.
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