New Delhi: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke Wednesday said that the government panel that heard his appeal against the blocking of the CJP’s X account neither showed him the blocking order nor the posts it found objectionable, or any reason for the action.
“Nothing is being told to us. Everything is confidential,” Dipke said at Jantar Mantar after appearing before the panel at MeitY’s headquarters, Electronics Niketan. “At least tell us the reason, if you are saying it with so much confidence.”
He said he had asked the committee to show him the blocking order and the specific X posts that were deemed offensive, but was refused on both.
Responding to ThePrint’s request for comment, a MeitY official said, “We are not at liberty to tell the outcome of the meeting.”
Hours earlier, Dipke had announced his impending appearance at the ministry. “Today at 3 pm, I will personally appear before the Review Committee of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology regarding the withholding of our account, @CJP_2029,” he wrote on X.
The body he appeared before is the inter-departmental committee (IDC) constituted under Rule 7 of the IT Blocking Rules, 2009. It is chaired by MeitY’s designated officer, an officer of joint secretary rank, and draws members from the Ministries of Home Affairs, Law and Justice, and Information and Broadcasting, along with CERT-In, the government’s cyber agency. The committee is in charge of examining blocking requests and hears the affected party before making a recommendation.
The same rules require strict confidentiality over blocking requests and the action taken.
The X account, @CJP_2029, launched on 16 May crossed 2 lakh followers in four days. On 21 May it was withheld in India under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, after X cited a legal demand. Dipke moved the Delhi High Court on 25 May; the court issued notice to the Centre and X but declined to restore the account at once, citing issues with national security.
The hearing ran alongside the Jantar Mantar sit-in Dipke has led since 20 June, demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET paper leak and other exam irregularities. The protest entered its fifth day Wednesday.
At the protests, Dipke said: “You sit in government, and today you call us terrorists. You called farmers terrorists. You called doctors terrorists. Now you call students terrorists. So who is the real Indian in this country?”
He added: “Dharmendra Pradhan calls us terrorists. But the irony is that he is the one with the blood of more than 17 students on his hands. No family lost a child because of us. They lost them because of Dharmendra Pradhan.”
In an interview to NDTV this week, the education minister had, referring to the CJP protesters, said: “Ye dehshatgardon ka B-team hai. Jin logon ko prajatantra ne sare se aswikar kiya.”
The original CJP handle remains blocked. The party continues on a second X account and on Instagram.
(Edited by Archishman Ganguly)
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