Unless you were under a rock the past few weeks, you must have seen images of Neha Bora sprinting away from the Delhi Police demanding the removal of Gyanesh Kumar, the Chief Election Commissioner, now accused of rigging the voter rolls in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Bora has now emerged as the face of the anti-Gyanesh protests that started in Delhi on October 10.
In a wide-ranging conversation on Scroll Adda, the 29-year-old tells Shoaib Daniyal why they consider the BJP India’s most dangerous political party. They also laughingly reclaim BJP attacks on them for trying to implement “regime change”.
“Regime change is one of the most fundamental aspects of a democracy,” Bora says loudly. “But people are out on the streets since it is no longer possible to do it through votes.”
Bora swats away questions on “switching sides” and, like Kanhaiya Kumar, going from a Left party to a larger one like the Congress.
On their own statement that there were disagreements during the July Jantar Mantar movement with the Cockroach Janta Party, Bora cleared the air. “They [CJP] don’t have a political understanding on different issues so there can be differences in strategy,” they said. “But at the end of the day the July protests happened because we worked together.”
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Host: Shoaib Daniyal
Shoot: Priyali Dhingra & Raghav Kakkar
Production: Priyali Dhingra
Edit: Hyder Habib
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Chapters
00:00 Precap
02:01 ‘I am for regime change’
08:30 Why they won’t sign a peace bond
13:40 How to crush a protest
18:30 Attacking godi media
23:32 Relationship with Congress
26:50 Why the Left is so small electorally
33:30 Tensions with the Cockroach Janta Party
35:42 The toll of being an activist
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