India Youth Not Puppets Of Some People On Foreign Soil, BJP Chief Nitin Nabin

Ranchi:

Using the power of the digital age to trick young people into a negative direction won’t be allowed to happen in India, BJP national chief Nitin Nabin said at a party event in Jharkhand’s Ranchi today.

His comments come amid a loud gathering over a thousand kilometres away in the national capital’s go-to protest site, Jantar Mantar, led by Abhijeet Dipke, 30, a foreign-returned political satirist who has worked for the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) social media team.

Nabin, alluding to the political undertones of the just-arrived noisemakers who also found support from Opposition leaders, said, “It is on the hard work and strength of the youth that this country is moving forward… That is why I say to those who want to drag the youth of this country into negative politics, I warn them that the youth of India will engage in positive politics. We will certainly protest in every way on the basis of democracy, but we will not let the standards of democracy be destroyed.”

Dipke made headlines in recent weeks after he set up the website ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ and its social media handles while still in the US, in a move the public relations graduate from Boston University called a work of satire.

He landed in Delhi this morning and headed to Jantar Mantar in the high-security central Delhi district. There, he made political comments which many on social media pointed out reeked of banal platitudes that people have heard many times before.

Nabin, who came to Jharkhand to hold party meetings, criticised narratives floated by power-hungry elites with deep pockets who run sophisticated campaigns using the Gen-Z label to plant the seeds of chaos.

“Some people, sitting abroad, sitting on foreign soil, think that they will give direction to the youth of India. The youth of India sit in the village square with farmers, live on the village paths, live in our coaching institutes, and live in our college campuses. The youth of India are not going to move forward by becoming a puppet in the hands of a few people,” the BJP national chief said.

The social media handles of Dipke’s Cockroach Janta Party got millions of followers in just a few weeks to surpass mainstream parties’ social media handles that have been active for over a decade.

“Today, a very big message has been given to the people of the country. The digital medium can be used positively. Digital can be used for the development of the country and the youth. Using digital to take the youth revolution of the country in a negative direction, that will never be allowed to happen. So, I say, the youth of my country, you all need to wake up if we are to build a developed India…” Nabin said at the event in Ranchi.

He is in Jharkhand for two days. Tomorrow, he is scheduled to go to Bokaro Steel City. He will subsequently hold a joint meeting with BJP district in-charges, district presidents and the party’s special media and communications specialists in Ranchi.

The protesters at Jantar Mantar demanded the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged irregularities in conducting the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) exams and the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), or NEET-UG.