Prakash Ambedkar criticises Centre over restrictions on CJP protesters

Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi chief Prakash Ambedkar backed the Cockroach Janta Party's protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, criticised restrictions on demonstrators and urged the government to hold talks, warning that political parties risk alienating the younger generation

Mumbai: Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of Dr B R Ambedkar, on Saturday extended support to the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) agitation against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, while criticising the Centre and the administration for their efforts to restrict the protest.

Speaking to IANS, Ambedkar said, “The government is totally scared… It should have held talks with the protesters, but instead, the government has started a kind of suppression by cancelling trains, shutting down Metro services, stopping those wanting to take part in the protest and even checking the vehicles of the common public.”

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“So this is, in a way, an Emergency-like situation,” he remarked.

Noting that the younger generation was leading the agitation, the VBA chief said, “The government has not learnt its lesson.”

“Youngsters had participated in large numbers during the 2012 agitation, which was led by Anna Hazare, and to date, they have not allowed the Congress to return to power,” he added.

In an indirect reference to the BJP, he said, “I believe those who benefited from that protest should have learnt a lesson. Today, too, the protesters belong to the younger generation, who are not fighting for power but are agitating for change and accountability.”

“In such a scenario, if you go against them, the BJP and the RSS will meet the same fate as the Congress,” Ambedkar said.

He further said the anti-NEET paper leak agitation at Jantar Mantar had been successful because ordinary people had participated in it.

“This time, too, it will be successful because of the participation of the common man,” he asserted.

Criticising the Congress, Ambedkar said, “The Congress still has time to mend its ways. The time for ‘one-man rule’ is now over. Just as it missed the bus in 2012 by failing to gauge the mood of the younger generation and has remained out of power for so many years, this time, too, the younger generation will drift away from it if the party fails to understand and work alongside young people.”

Meanwhile, CJP leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were detained by police at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi while they were on their way to Jantar Mantar to stage a protest demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over alleged irregularities in the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.