What’s Rahul Gandhi planning amid buzz over absence from CJP-Wangchuk protest: ‘Are you rattled, Modi ji?’
Chief of Opposition Rahul Gandhi has not visited activist Sonam Wangchuk who’s on starvation strike on the Cockroach Janta Occasion protest at Jantar Mantar for nearly three weeks now, and that absence has grow to be its personal story — drawing jibes from Wangchuk himself, then a prolonged defence from a Congress chief, plus a shot at some perspective by CJP’s founder on X.
Amid the chatter, the Congress chief’s precise itinerary factors elsewhere, in the direction of the subsequent occasion of his personal marketing campaign on the identical points, additionally demanding Union training minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation over paper leaks and exam-related irregularities.
A month after its launch in Rajasthan’s Kota, Rahul’s occasion collection ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ will see its subsequent present in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, on July 17, at a venue modified at quick discover after the state administration withdrew its earlier clearance.
Rahul additionally posted a video asking “Modi ji, are you rattled?”, over the venue-change row with the BJP authorities. Talking in Hindi, he mentioned: “Narendra Modi has taken a choice, that within the subsequent 4-5 days, he desires to divert [public] consideration by doing one thing or the opposite. You shouldn’t let him divert your consideration. Unemployment is the largest difficulty… future of two crore youths has been ruined.”
Uttarakhand Congress unit president Ganesh Godiyal confirmed on Wednesday that the Dehradun occasion, initially deliberate for Parade Floor, will now be held at Bannu Faculty floor. He advised reporters that the get together had deposited charges and secured permission for July 15, 16 and 17, just for the administration to cancel it citing the extension of one other occasion on the floor. The state and Centre’s ruling BJP accused Congress of enjoying a “false sufferer card” over the dispute.
The marketing campaign Rahul is working
Rahul Gandhi launched ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ (Echoing Voice of College students) from Kota on June 17. Three follow-up occasions — Prayagraj, Patna and Delhi — had been deferred after he reportedly prolonged a international journey. The BJP took digs at it, even implying a “international conspiracy”.
Gandhi’s first reported engagement upon return was a gathering with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and common secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal on July 14 night, reportedly on points within the get together’s Punjab unit.
Not distant from there, Wangchuk’s quick continued, below the banner of the CJP protest that started on June 28 over the identical paper-leak and NEET-related grievances. Wangchuk has refused to finish the quick, regardless of being in “immense ache”, together with his weight reduction now previous 8 kg.
Dipke reframes the query
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, in a put up on X on Wednesday morning, pushed again on the “the place is Rahul” narrative altogether. Quite than asking why Opposition leaders or CJP’s personal workforce members weren’t fasting alongside Wangchuk, he mentioned, “ask the questions that really matter”.
“Why is the Prime Minister refusing to have interaction in a dialogue? Why is the Training Minister nonetheless not being held accountable? These are the questions that deserve solutions, not distractions that solely assist defend these in energy from accountability,” he wrote on X.
The federal government’s response has been dismissive at finest, whereas Pradhan has branded the CJP “B-team of terrorists”. BJP president Nitin Nabin has attacked “virus and cockroach-like events… [that] wish to divide the nation”.
Additionally learn | ‘Apolitical’ Cockroach protest caught between absent Rahul, detached Modi govt
Dipke, in the meantime, thanked a string of opposition leaders, together with Samajwadi Occasion’s Akhilesh Yadav, NCP’s Rohit Pawar and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, for both visiting the location or extending solidarity. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor was amongst those that acquired a thank-you observe for promising to lift their points in Parliament.
Wangchuk, nevertheless, advised Indian Specific Hindi a day earlier that it could mirror “nice pettiness” if high Opposition leaders stayed away. He was requested pointedly about Rahul Gandhi, and he mentioned the general public would “reject” leaders who didn’t categorical solidarity over real points.
Mevani’s rebuttal, Rahul’s previous file
This framing drew a response from Gujarat Congress Working President Jignesh Mevani on X; he rejected the concept Congress had ignored the protest. He famous that the get together had not mentioned something adverse on Wangchuk or the protesting youth.
Mevani underlined that the Congress’s pupil wing NSUI and the Youth Congress confronted water cannons and lathis whereas protesting paper leaks in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and different states. He pointed to Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ too as proof that the Congress has been “strolling with the youth each step”.
Mevani listed additional cases of Rahul Gandhi’s previous engagement with grieving households and affected communities throughout points, such because the Mandsaur farmer killings and Wayanad’s landslide, and with college students affected by latest points.
“Constant solidarity with out turning grief into spectacle,” he wrote.
He mentioned the Congress protests and Wangchuk’s quick ought to to be seen as complementary fairly than competing.
Rahul Gandhi has prior to now spoken out for Ladakh’s statehood motion, too, which Wangchuk co-led and was even jailed over for six months not too long ago. After police firing in Leh killed 4 folks on September 24, 2025, and Wangchuk was detained below the Nationwide Safety Act, Gandhi mentioned the federal government had “betrayed the folks of Ladakh” and demanded a judicial inquiry into the deaths. Wangchuk was launched from Jodhpur jail on March 14, 2026.
A structural distinction
As for the Jantar Mantar protest now, there’s been a visual shift in the way it’s been projected by the CJP, an outfit based on-line in Might and named thus, satirically, after the Chief Justice of India made some remarks. Dipke, a former social media strategist for the AAP, has mentioned from the protest’s outset that it “doesn’t depend upon any political get together”. At one level he advised reporters, “We do not need current events to return.” He additionally spoke about how bringing in Rahul Gandhi or defeating Narendra Modi would “not imply a lot”.
Dipke’s older X posts lampooning Rahul’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ have additionally gone viral, as has Wangchuk’s previous change of compliments with Dharmendra Pradhan from 2023.
Additionally learn | How Modi govt’s equation with Sonam Wangchuk collapsed: From ‘great dialog’ to Jantar Mantar
Although, the CJP’s statedly “non-political” or apolitical place has since eased to welcome leaders who arrive with out get together flags, and the protest has drawn visits or solidarity statements from Left leaders, TMC’s Mahua Moitra and Mamata Banerjee, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Uddhav Thackeray, Samajwadi Occasion’s Akhilesh Yadav, NCP’s Rohit Pawar, AAP’s Sanjay Singh and Atishi, moreover Congress MPs. AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal is to go to on Thursday.
What subsequent by Congress, CJP
Rahul Gandhi’s Dehradun occasion is about to go forward at Bannu Faculty floor on July 17, with 4 extra metropolis legs of ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ reportedly deliberate earlier than Independence Day, August 15.
The CJP, in the meantime, has mentioned it expects a response from the Modi authorities by July 20, the opening day of Parliament’s Monsoon Session. It has deliberate a march from Jantar Mantar to Parliament that day.
