The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) will hold its ‘Lehra Do Tiranga’ protest near the Ambedkar Statue at Pune’s Collectorate on October 17 after the outfit said it was denied permission to demonstrate at Savitribai Phule Pune University. The protest is scheduled from 4 pm to 7 pm, while Pune police said discussions with the concerned authorities were still ongoing.
CJP Pune announced the change after its request to hold the protest at the university campus was reportedly not cleared. The organisation said it was instead granted permission to hold the demonstration at the Collectorate. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone IV) Chilumula Rajnikanth told The Indian Express that the police had neither granted nor denied permission and that discussions were continuing.
The protest was called by CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke as part of a nationwide mobilisation. According to the organisation, it is intended to express solidarity with CJP leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, who were sent to five-day judicial custody and lodged in Tihar Jail for allegedly violating their peace bonds and trespassing at Jantar Mantar.
The disagreement over the proposed venue is linked to a Management Council resolution adopted by SPPU in August. The resolution, numbered 363/250826, states that protests not related to university matters would not be allowed on the campus. It refers to an earlier CJP protest at SPPU concerning the NEET-UG paper leak and says demonstrations on national issues not directly connected with the university would not be permitted.
Kushal Gupte, a CJP Pune member, said he had approached Chaturshrungi Police Station on October 14 to apply for permission. He said police officials showed him the university circular and told him that permission could not be given on that basis. Gupte added that officials offered to provide an official letter of denial, but he did not collect it because he was short of time.
The university rule has become the central point of the dispute because it places limits on demonstrations at a large public educational campus while leaving questions about how the restriction will be applied across organisations and issues. CJP member Gupte said the rule should apply to all protests and events on campus and objected to what he described as the organisation being singled out in the Management Council communication.
In a press release, the CJP said its earlier NEET-UG protest had been peaceful, constitutional and conducted in coordination with the administration. The organisation said using that demonstration as the basis for restricting future protests amounted to silencing students. It also argued that voter registration and the right to vote were connected to the university because large numbers of students are new voters.
The CJP has demanded that SPPU publicly clarify the decision and assure that the restriction will be applied equally to all organisations. The immediate decision on the October 17 protest remains subject to discussions between the police and the concerned authorities.
