From the moment he appeared on India’s political horizon, Abhijeet Dipke has been inviting comparisons with Arvind Kejriwal.His Cockroach Janata Party movement – much like the Anna Hazare led anti-corruption campaign of 2011 of which Kejriwal was a part – has managed to capture people’s imagination and force a long-smug government to come to the table and talk.As in April of 2011 when the Congress led UPA dispensation, worried about Hazare’s hunger strike, formed a joint panel of ministers and India Against Corruption leaders to draft the Jan Lokpal Bill, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led NDA this time appointed two interlocutors to talk to the CJP about demands around NEET UG paper leak and accountability. In the backdrop loomed the challenge of a fasting Sonam Wangchuk.The images that followed – ministers JP Nadda and Jitendra Singh shaking hands with Dipke’s representatives Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka bore uncanny similarities with the frames that captured erstwhile UPA heavyweights Pranab Mukherjee, P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal in talks with Hazare’s aides Prashant Bhushan, Kejriwal and others way back in 2011 at the height of the anti-graft campaign.While the India against Corruption movement led to a change of guard at the Centre in 2014 and the formation of a new political party under Kejriwal in 2013, it remains to be seen which way Dipke and his CJP go.If early signs are anything to go by, the CJP is clear in its commitment to stay focused on issues affecting India’s youth and not stray into the risky world of politics.The Tribune has reliably learnt that Dipke and his colleagues declined meetings with some key politicians who reached out to them after Jantar Mantar protests appeared steering towards definitive and positive outcomes.Many protesters at Jantar Mantar were also seen questioning AAP’s Punjab in charge Manish Sisodia over an alleged paper leak in the poll bound state.Most of all, the CJP largely refrained from allowing politicians to use its stage for personal point-scoring even as the movement insiders say most parties seemed keen to share the fruits of the protest’s success while having barely contributed to its mobilisation through 36 days.Substantial credit for CJP’s success in forcing the ouster of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan is currently being given to its apolitical and amorphous nature.The movement has no hierarchies, no leadership verticals and no rigid protocols. It stayed organic and unorganised, allowing anyone nursing a grievance against the Government and the system to join and vent their frustration.It was this fluid outpouring of angst that the Government and security establishment was neither expecting nor prepared to handle on July 20 when police assault on a sea of protesters threw the situation out of hand, forcing a change of tack by the prime minister.Distance from politics delivered the CJP its first major success.Now the question is – can the CJP resist the temptation of going political? If yes, for how long? After the success of Anna Hazare’s civil society movement, many of his aides including Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi joined active politics.Will Dipke end up being another Kejriwal? Time will tell.Till then all CJP leaders have made a tactical retreat saying they want time to rest.While they regroup, both the Government and the opposition would have their hands full – going back to the drawing boards and reworking political and electoral strategies.The Congress must be worried that its failure to articulate national anxieties and become the voice of the people has led to the creation of an alternate force which has succeeded to achieve the lofty goal of minister Pradhan’s sacking in the very first go.Forcing an NDA minister’s exit is something the Congress led opposition has tried for years but not managed. PM Modi has not budge in the face of opposition’s relentless pressure to sack several senior ministers – late Sushma Swaraj (alleged to have a conflict of interest on account of her daughter representing former IPL boss Lalit Modi in a court matter); Ajay Mishra (whose son is facing trial for the killing of four farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri violence of 2021); Smriti Irani (over controversies around her educational degrees) and most recently Hardeep Singh Puri (for alleged exchanges with deceased child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein).While the opposition licks its wounds, the government too must be concerned that with Pradhan’s resignation on account of students’ pressure, prime minister Narendra Modi’s carefully crafted image of unquestioned authority stands dented.PM has now had to resort to Insta reels and video selfies to engage a generation that talks and communicates in a new idiom.This being the case after the culmination of Jantar Mantar protests, both sides of the political spectrum are bound to stay consumed with the challenge of recovery – both of narratives and of perceptions.All in all – this is Indian democracy in full action.