5 – Fishy or Not?

July 21, 2026

            Last week I had lunch with a teacher from one of the writing courses I took last summer. The assignments I turned in for his class were centered around political musings about the rise of religious extremism in India. This teacher (T) was very generous about supporting his students and he offered me a private on-line lesson in writing short political articles. I wrote for a while using those guidelines to explore the many questions I had about events in India. I posted them and got responses and it felt satisfying. Then I found others who were expressing similar views and I was happy to read their views rather than write. Perhaps I was lazy or simply overwhelmed by health challenges which made it hard to find the right words. 

            But recent events in India have brought me back to wanting to express my thoughts because I find them diverging from those of the voices I had begun to feel in synch with. In fact my thoughts go around and around in my head, tying it up in knots and not allowing me to do anything else. 

            Mostly these thoughts are around the newly formed Cockroach Janata Party that rose to fame very suddenly two months ago. They have called for and executed a very successful student agitation in Delhi city yesterday. Kudos to them and to the students that came from all over India to participate. 

            Boo to the police that tear gassed and lathi charged and disrupted a peaceful march very violently. I guess I am writing this to understand my skepticism about the CJP. 

            When I first watched interviews by Dipke (the founder) I found him sincere. When I watched the other spokespeople, I found one sincere while was wary of the other two — one of which was Saurav Das. He was too slick, his answers to many questions evasive, and he it felt like there were things he was hiding, things that I needed to know to understand and fully support this party. 

            My suspicions of the gang intensified when they began writing posts that sounded like, if you are not with us then you are on the wrong side of history. Sonam Wangchuk who had been suddenly arrested by MHA in Ladakh (Sept 2025), and just as suddenly set free, (February 2026) joined the protest. They all behaved like they were diaper buddies—ok, I guess, common cause and all that—except Wangchuk hadn’t expressed concern about the exam leaks before. Das and Dipke had a history of criticizing the Congress, Wangchuk of supporting the BJP, but suddenly ‘one day’ they insisted that Rahul Gandhi support their movement. Also, Wangchuk claimed or let slip that the governor of Ladakh (a BJP appointee) insisted that he meet Dipke — weird or not?

            But ok, these are things that I forced myself to not dwell on. What I  could not skip over was that all of the above disappeared when the police and para-military forces made their most brutal attacks on the students. Wangchuk who had been on a hunger strike had been removed to hospital just the day before. Das and the other spokesperson were at Nadda’s house handing him a rather wishy-washy list of demands while Dipke just had disappeared. Das claimed that the police had arrested Dipke then later said they hadn’t; but didn’t explain his absence during the violence. 

            Then Dipke was there at night again, standing on top of a car, and shouting slogans. Nobody, independent u-tubers, that reported on the protest, seemed to be bothered by the fact that he disappeared during the day. I was, and am.

            Anyway the students marched and took the movement forward without these so-called leaders who disappeared. They didn’t need the leaders but then the leaders took over the protest again. And now the police have just let everyone back into the protest site after crushing them violently hours earlier? 

            Wow! To me this is weird and suspicious. I had to write it down. Perhaps it will make sense later? Sorry — for those not following the movement this stuff will be meaningless. I had to express it even as it is more confusing than complete in my mind. Down on the 'page' and I can move on to doing other things. 

            I don’t trust them but will be happy to be proven wrong. I have a theory (conspiracy theory) about it and will write another time about it. Watching news, rather consuming it, like a heroin addiction right now.