Congress, CJP Protested. One Didn't Resonate As Much With Students: S Tharoor

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has said that many of the issues championed by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) during the nationwide student protests had already been raised by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi through his Chhatron Ki Goonj (Voice of Students) campaign but those concerns failed to generate the same level of public response.

Tharoor said the Congress had taken up similar concerns months before they became the centrepiece of the CJP's agitation.

"Interestingly, the issues taken up by the CJP were something my party took up, Rahul Gandhi took up with Chhatron Ki Goonj," Tharoor said. "But we have to see why it did not resonate as much. We need to have a finger on the pulse of the people."

The CJP began demonstrations at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on June 20, demanding accountability over examination leaks. One of its principal demands was the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Rahul Gandhi launched the Chhatron Ki Goonj campaign in Rajasthan's Kota on June 17, before taking it to other cities across the country.

Rahul Gandhi argued that India's education system had become trapped in what he described as an exploitative ecosystem that had flourished under the government's watch. Although the campaign highlighted many of the same concerns later echoed by student protesters, it did not produce the widespread mobilisation witnessed during the CJP-led agitation.

The Congress MP also stressed the growing importance of India's younger population, saying political parties across South Asia could no longer assume that established methods of politics would continue to work.

"Gen Z will be the single largest voting cohort in 2029," he said. "Much of the subcontinent has to wake up and come to grips with the phenomenon that young people want change. It cannot be business as usual."

Tharoor also reiterated his long-held position on how opposition politics should function.

"I have been advocating this in my party," he said. "Sadak ka kaam sadak par. Sadan ka kaam, sadan mein."

Tharoor also defended his willingness to express opinions that sometimes differ from those of his party leadership.

"I am not disloyal to my party but I express my independent views. Sometimes my views can be used by my opponents. The Congress is the least undemocratic. Have you heard of anyone expressing dissent in the BJP and survive? I am in the party that is closest to my views."

He responded to criticism directed at him after he appeared at a platform that was also attended by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. 
Bhagwat had addressed a gathering of around 2,000 Gen Z and Gen Alpha participants during the 15th anniversary celebrations of India's International Movement to Unite Nations (IIMUN) in Mumbai on Thursday.

"Those who want me expelled from my party because I came to a platform that Mohan Bhagwat graced show a lack of understanding that one cannot engage with opposite views," he said.