New Delhi: Cockroach Janta Party spokespersons Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das are finally out of Tihar Jail, and they’re facing the camera with humour.
In several interviews since their release, Das and Ranka have recounted their jail experiences, intermixed with jokes. Among their anecdotes was a complaint that there were no mirrors in prison. When content creator Arshad told Das how happy everyone was to see him, Das joked that he, too, was happy to be seeing his own face.
“I am quite happy to be looking at myself right now, because the jail did not have any mirrors,” Das told Arshad.
The video got more than a million views.
“Masti nahi rukni chahiye,” CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke wrote in the caption to the duo’s photos on social media. The fun, it seems, has not stopped.
‘Proper vipassana’
Ranka and Das were arrested after they entered Jantar Mantar last week and unfurled the national flag there after the ground was denotified as a protest site.
In a recent interview with CJP’s north coordinator Mahvish Ali, Ranka said that for the first three days in jail, he was happy.
“I had not slept for many days; I was finishing my pending sleep,” Ranka said.
When the CJP spokesperson was asked if people should go to jail once, Ranka didn’t hesitate to say yes. “Everyone must visit Tihar once,” he said.
Ranka said that he spent his time in Tihar in peace without phones.
“Vipassana hai proper (It’s similar to vipassana),” he said.
In the video, Ranka and CJP members joked about the absence of mirrors in jail.
“We have just started coming and going now. The mirror will also be installed soon,” said one volunteer in jest.
In another interview, Ranka even praised the food served at Tihar Jail.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)
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