The Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) was forced to cancel its previously scheduled event in Kolkata after failing to secure a venue at the last minute. On Tuesday, CJP alleged that the venue’s owners canceled their scheduled event, set for 5:00 p.m. that day, after receiving “threats from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.”
The event was meant to be a discussion between CJP and members of the public and journalists.
CJP spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka wrote on social media platform X: “Our previously scheduled Kolkata event at Bharat Sabha Hall in North Kolkata has been canceled, because the hall’s owners received threats from BJP leaders.”
In the same post, Ranka claimed that six other venues had refused to grant them permission, citing “immense pressure from the state.”
Bharat Sabha Hall is owned by the Indian Association. It was established in 1876 as a socio-political nonprofit organization by, among others, Surendranath Banerjee, one of the founders of the Congress party.
An official at Bharat Sabha Hall told Indian media that CJP had not booked the venue in advance.
Citing that official, media outlets further reported: “CJP arrived between 10:30 and 10:45 a.m., but I could not give them the hall, because another event was scheduled there that might not have finished within their preferred time.”
Asked whether the BJP had issued any kind of threat, the official denied it.
Rajeev Sarkar, officer-in-charge of Bowbazar police station, under whose jurisdiction Bharat Sabha Hall falls, told media that police had no information about any such threat.
In his X post, Ranka wrote that this move proves the BJP is afraid. He added: “We will certainly miss the opportunity to connect with Bengal’s beloved cockroaches this time. But we promise a much bigger event will be held soon.”
Most importantly, he added, Bengal’s “cockroaches” would continue their inspections of government schools and would force the Bengal government to improve their condition.
A group of assailants beat the father of a CJP member to death a few days ago in a village in the Indas block of Bankura district. It was in connection with that incident that CJP’s top leadership traveled from Delhi to West Bengal. One person has been arrested so far in connection with the killing; he is reportedly affiliated with the BJP.
This is not the first time CJP has had an event venue canceled in a BJP-ruled state. On August 13, a meeting of CJP volunteers at a banquet hall in New Delhi was cut short and had to be relocated to a public park. The organization’s leadership said that time, too, the hall’s owners had cited “pressure from higher authorities.”
Even ahead of a July protest at Jantar Mantar, a metro station there was shut down and internet service in the area was suspended.
Roughly 100,000 people gathered there despite a police crackdown, and CJP itself had considerable difficulty obtaining permission to hold the rally. Before that, in mid-June, police in Jaipur first withdrew permission for a CJP rally, before later allowing it to proceed subject to certain conditions.
Following recent protests by students and Gen Z youth led by CJP at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, India’s federal education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, was forced to resign. After that protest, CJP said it wants to act as a pressure group and lead the push to secure the right to education at government schools.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report