Denied permission at Savitribai Phule University, CJP Pune to protest at Collector’s Office tomorrow

Abhijeet Dipke sought to know what offence CJP leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka committed by waving the tricolour at Jantar Mantar. (File photo)

The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) in Pune announced that the outfit will hold the ‘Lehra Do Tiranga’ protest on October 17 at the Ambedkar Statue near the Collectorate. The protest will be held from 4 pm to 7 pm.

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke had called for the ‘Lehra Do Tiranga’ protest to be held nationwide on Friday.

Dipke’s call for protest is to show solidarity with CJP leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, who were sent to five-day judicial custody and were lodged in Tihar Jail for allegedly violating their peace bonds and trespassing at Jantar Mantar.

CJP said that the outfit was denied permission for a protest at Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) on October 17, while it was granted permission at the Collector’s office.

The CJP claims that the request for protest at SPPU was denied on the basis of a Management Council resolution passed in August this year, which says that protests not related to university matters will not be allowed at the campus.

The Management Council decision, numbered 363/250826, mentions that a protest by the CJP was held on the SPPU campus against the national issue of the NEET-UG paper leak. The decision states that protests on national matters not directly related to the university will not be allowed on campus.

Kushal Gupte, CJP Pune member, told The Indian Express that he had gone to the Chaturshrungi Police Station on October 14 to apply for permission for the protest. “The police showed us this circular of the university and told us that they cannot give us permission. They said they could give us an official letter of denial, however I did not have time today so I could not go.”

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Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone IV) Chilumula Rajnikanth said, “We have neither granted nor denied permission. Discussions are ongoing with the concerned authorities.”

Gupte said that the rule should apply to all protests or events on the campus, and singling out the CJP in the Management Council letter was problematic. A press release by the CJP said, “Previously, the protest organized by the CJP against the NEET paper leak was conducted in a completely peaceful, constitutional manner, and in coordination with the administration. Citing that very protest as a basis to now close off the avenue for peaceful demonstration is tantamount to silencing the voice of students. It is incorrect to claim that the issue of voter registration and the right to vote is ‘unrelated’ to the university, lakhs of students within the university are the new voters of this nation.”

The CJP demanded that the university issue a public clarification regarding the decision and assure that it would be applied to all organisations equally.