CJP protest gave strength to challenge BJP, says Dimple Yadav

Dimple Yadav said young Samajwadi Party MPs were determined to join the Delhi CJP protest even without party permission. Calling the movement a “Sanjivani booti” for the country, she said it demonstrated the power of collective action against the BJP

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Dimple Yadav on Wednesday said she and other young SP MPs might have participated in the Delhi CJP protest even without the party leadership’s permission, asserting that the movement proved to be a “Sanjivani booti” (life-saving herb) for the country.

A message — that the BJP can be defeated and and it’s not a difficult task — has gone across the country from the protest, Yadav said, speaking at a press conference at the party headquarters.

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“Agar permission nahi dete to hum nahi jaante hum kya karte. Ho sakta hai hum tab hi jaate. Yuva hum sab, hum sab thaan ke baithe hue the (If we wouldn’t have got permission, we do not know what we would have done. Perhaps, we would have gone anyway. All of us young MPs were determined to go), she said.

She thanked SP president Akhilesh Yadav, who was with her at the press conference, for allowing the party’s young MPs to participate in the agitation.

“When we all went there, all of us MPs felt connected because it seemed that these were our own children fighting for their rights and entitlements,” the Mainpuri MP said.

Dimple Yadav said the protesters appeared to be ordinary young people who had come to put forward their demands and were not being provoked or supported by outsiders.

“These are young people who have come here organically to put forward their point. They are not being provoked from any angle, and there is no outside support,” she said.

Recalling the treatment of Sonam Wangchuk, Dimple Yadav said the manner in which he was taken away “while being wrapped in a white bedsheet” had hurt the sentiments of many people.

“We were feeling sentimental and hurt. Somewhere, we had decided that we would definitely participate in this movement,” she said.

Yadav said opposition parties were not initially unanimous on joining the protest, but the SP leadership eventually allowed its young MPs to participate.

“We want to thank our national president who permitted us,” she said, adding that the MPs had even come prepared for the protest wearing appropriate sports shoes.

“We could feel their pain. They told us that their clothes were torn and they were given electric shocks… Somewhere, it gave us the strength to stand with them,” she said without elaborating further on the allegations.

Dimple Yadav said the agitation had sent a message across the country and society that people could challenge BJP government through collective action.

“One message has gone across the country and society — that the BJP can be defeated. If we fight together, defeating the BJP is not a difficult task,” she said.

Calling the movement a “Sanjivani booti” for the country, Yadav said it had demonstrated the strength of people’s collective action.

SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav said the party had supported the movement from its first day and had described it as “BJP versus CJP” when the protest was gaining millions of views online.

“While the movement was going on, we were involved in it in one way or another. If you look at the political parties, the Samajwadi Party supported the movement from the very first day,” he said.

Yadav said several young SP MPs, including Dimple Yadav, Iqra Hasan and Priya Saroj, wanted to join the agitation.

The SP chief said the party ultimately decided to stand fully behind the protesters, who, he said, had gone through “pain, suffering and difficulties”.

“If the party had not taken a decision at that time, perhaps we would have missed that movement,” he said.

He added that the party’s involvement in the movement had begun earlier and its support for the protesters was based on a decision to stand with them with “complete honesty”.