Gen Z voices should lead dialogue with youth: Dipke on Bhagwat's student meet
Dialogue with youth is welcome, but it will be even better if led by young or Gen Z voices, Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke said on Tuesday, August 4, ahead of an interaction scheduled between RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and students in Mumbai.
Bhagwat will interact with Gen Alpha and Gen Z students in the Maharashtra capital on August 6. The event will bring together more than 2,000 students aged between 15 and 19 from over 100 cities across the country.
Notably, Dharmendra Pradhan resigned as Union education minister on July 25 following the Cockroach Janta Party-led youth protests against the NEET exam paper leak.
Asked about Bhagwat's upcoming event in Mumbai, Dipke said, "It is good that dialogue is taking place. But it will be even better if some young faces are deployed for this."
"The youth has forced this. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has to post a reel on Instagram, and Mohan Bhagwat also wants to interact with Gen Z," he noted.
"Though it is late, they have understood that Gen Z cannot be ignored and dismissed, and we should have a dialogue with them. We have to talk with them. These youth are the future of the country,'' the CJP founder told reporters at his residence in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.
Dipke maintained that Gen Z needs young representation.
"But I would like to say that it will be even better if the faces (interacting with youngsters) are Gen Z or young. If people aged 70-80 are talking, it is good. But what will Gen Z get out of it? Gen Z needs young representation. If youth interacts with youth, it will be even better,'' he stated.
Dipke further claimed the Jharkhand government was ignoring students agitating there.
Students have been staging an indefinite protest at Ranchi's Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium since July 29 over alleged paper leaks in the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) examination and other recruitment tests.
Dipke said he has interacted with the agitating students in Jharkhand over the phone.
"They are not allowed to pitch their tents, and there are no washroom facilities for them. The treatment in Jharkhand is similar to how we were treated at Jantar Mantar (in New Delhi last month). But we are there with the agitating students in Jharkhand. CJP stands with these agitators,'' he added.
The protesters on Tuesday demanded an inquiry by an independent panel of retired high court judges from outside Jharkhand, alleging that the state government was attempting to "whitewash" the issue by entrusting the probe to the Crime Investigation Department (CID).
They had earlier sought a CBI investigation, along with an Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe, claiming large-scale financial transactions were linked to the alleged recruitment scam.
