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Tharoor says Congress youth outreach failed to match CJP protests
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said Friday that the party's 'Chhatron ki Goonj' campaign, led by Rahul Gandhi, failed to generate the same public response as the Cockroach Janta Party's (CJP) recent protests…
The Story in Brief
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said Friday that the party's 'Chhatron ki Goonj' campaign, led by Rahul Gandhi, failed to generate the same public response as the Cockroach Janta Party's (CJP) recent protests over the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak. Speaking in Mumbai, Tharoor asked where the party failed to listen to Gen Z. The Congress had taken up paper-leak issues in Kota, Dehradun, and Prayagraj since June but got little resonance, he said.
Ahead of Gandhi's Prayagraj event Saturday, the Indian Youth Congress announced 250-plus live-streaming venues nationwide. CJP's Jantar Mantar protests since June 20 had drawn student crowds and support from activist Sonam Wangchuk, who was later removed from the site. On July 20, police action against protesting students triggered a political row. Tharoor's remarks are the first open critique by a senior Congress figure of the party's own youth outreach.
The Indian Opinion
Some in Delhi will call this a routine intra-party squabble, but Tharoor has put a finger on a real problem for the opposition. The Congress ran the same paper-leak campaign months before CJP's Jantar Mantar protests yet got nowhere near that energy. The lazy narrative that Rahul Gandhi's outreach is enough because it exists is being punctured by the Congress's own senior MP. The real test is whether the party now changes its tactics or the Gen Z rejection is permanent. What will the Congress do differently that it hasn't tried already?
Sources (2): timesnownews.com, hindustantimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources.
