Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party, voiced support on Monday for the INDIA bloc's march to the Supreme Court, stating that demonstrations calling for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation would persist at locations throughout the country.
Dipke voiced support for the opposition gathering held in Delhi on Monday, characterising it as a notable and consequential demonstration, and urged that similar events be organised nationwide. He added that the INDIA bloc, as the principal opposition grouping, bore a particular responsibility to drive such mobilisation, and that rallies of this kind would persist until Gyanesh Kumar stepped down from his post.
Dipke expressed the view that the outcome would materialise as anticipated.
When asked about the Congress Kerala unit's since-removed social media post — which had called for Chief Justice of India Surya Kant to step down over his view that law and order fell outside the Supreme Court's purview — Dipke indicated he preferred not to weigh in on the matter at that point.
Dipke put a pointed question to those defending the Supreme Court's record on Election Commission matters, asking what concrete steps the bench had actually taken in response to the irregularities attributed to the poll body. Pointing to the court's latest comments on the matter, he stated that no steps whatsoever had been taken to address it.
Pointing to the removal of voter names from electoral rolls in West Bengal, Dipke challenged the position that those left unable to cast ballots in one election retain the option to do so in the next, asking whether the Supreme Court would apply that same reasoning to a sitting prime minister by advising him to forgo one contest and participate in a future one instead. He then posed the question of what grounds they have for presenting that information to voters if they are unable to confirm it.
Those remarks surfaced against the backdrop of a dispute within political circles over a social media post by the Congress Kerala unit that took aim at the Chief Justice of India. The upload, which was subsequently taken down, addressed Surya Kant directly, calling on him to step aside if responsibility for law and order fell outside his authority.
The BJP raised objections to the Congress post, characterising it as an attack on constitutional institutions. Rijiju, who holds a Union ministerial post, told an audience that while every citizen holds the right to protest, openly disrespecting constitutional institutions crosses a line that cannot be defended.
Sudhanshu Trivedi, a spokesperson for the BJP, put forward the claim that Congress was working to destabilise constitutional bodies and foster disorder. He additionally took issue with the INDIA bloc's decision to march to the Supreme Court, contending that the move amounted to an attempt to pressure or sway the judiciary.
When reporters pressed the Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant, on movement restrictions put in place during protests against the Chief Election Commissioner, he indicated that maintaining public order fell outside his jurisdiction. Access to the court, he noted, extended equally to private individuals and elected representatives alike.
