Congress Allegedly Shifted Stance on Jantar Mantar Demo, Says AAP Chief

Delhi, July 23 – The discourse around the ongoing student sit‑in at Jantar Mantar has become a battleground for Indian political parties. AAP’s Delhi state president Saurabh Bharadwaj issued a statement claiming that the Congress party and its leader Rahul Gandhi have been opportunistically re‑branding the protest to suit their narrative.

Bharadwaj alleged that initially, Congress‑friendly social‑media accounts attacked the Janata Dal (Secular) and dismissed the arrival of activist Abhijit Dipke on June 6 as a “social‑media bubble,” downplaying the demonstrators to a crowd of two hundred and stressing that YouTubers outnumbered actual protestors.

He said the party’s tone changed as soon as Rahul Gandhi began attending rallies, with Congress allegedly flooding media channels with footage of Gandhi’s speeches and attempting to cast him as the movement’s spokesperson. Bharadwaj argued that the majority of participants at these events were party workers rather than independent students.

The AAP chief also pointed out that Gandhi spent about a month overseas, during which time Congress supporters remained largely silent on the issue, suggesting a lack of authentic commitment.

According to Bharadwaj, Congress later expended considerable resources to simulate a “student movement” atmosphere, but the effort failed to generate genuine public support. He cited the July 20 Janata Dal protest, which saw a large influx of youth and Gen‑Z volunteers, as the point when Congress attempted to appropriate the narrative and portray Gandhi as the leader of the unrest.

Bharadwaj further accused the party of leveraging the Prime Minister’s residence in a televised appeal, urging students to gather at Jantar Mantar, an act he said was designed to diminish the protest’s impact. Both the broader public and some movement participants rejected this political overture, with several activists openly criticizing Congress’s tactics.

In his closing remarks, Bharadwaj warned that once the party’s strategy failed to resonate, Congress supporters reverted to their earlier playbook, once again challenging the Janata Dal and the student activists – a pattern he described as a “repeated political strategy.”