Union Minister Jitendra Singh has accused the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) of receiving funds from unauthorised sources, including foreign donors and Pakistani politicians, to run campaigns against the country. Singh told reporters in Bengaluru that the authorities have enough evidence to show the group is being funded by anti-India non-governmental organisations and what he called deep state operatives. The CJP foreign funding allegation is the latest flashpoint in a dispute over the group’s protests against the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
CJP foreign funding: the names Singh put forward
Singh named the group’s founder, Abhijeet Dipke, and its strategist, Ashutosh Ranka, while making the CJP foreign funding allegations. He said Dipke has been receiving funds from US-based donors, while Ranka is paid by Pakistani politicians. The minister said foreign-funded non-governmental organisations, deep state operatives and anti-India forces are manufacturing a narrative against India, and that the money was being channelled through illegal routes. The CJP foreign funding claims were made as the group stepped up protests in Delhi against the revision of electoral rolls. BJP spokesperson Tuhin A Sinha told NDTV the protests were engineered to trigger chaos in the national capital during the festive season. Singh made the remarks in Bengaluru, where he addressed reporters on Tuesday.
How the CJP foreign funding row has been answered
The CJP leaders rejected the CJP foreign funding charge and asked why central leaders had met them for tea and talks if foreign funding was involved. One of the group’s core organisers, Saurav Das, said the government had no response and no accountability on the questions the group was raising. Ashutosh Ranka asked Jitendra Singh to explain why officials had shaken hands with the group, negotiated with it and shared tea and breakfast with its members. Ranka said the group was raising real issues facing the country, including unemployment and the electoral roll revision, and accused the government of falling back on the same rhetoric about foreign funding.
The Opposition has dismissed the Centre’s foreign-hand charges and demanded documentary proof. Karnataka Home Minister Priyank Kharge and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi publicly challenged the BJP to produce evidence and pushed for an open debate on the allegations. Kharge is the Karnataka Home Minister, and his intervention put a state government voice behind the demand for proof. No public, independently verified evidence has been produced so far. The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act is the legal framework for such claims, and an allegation alone does not prove unlawful activity. The CJP foreign funding dispute has now become part of the wider argument over the electoral roll revision, with each side accusing the other of misleading the public.
The group, also known as the Zenzee movement, describes itself as a youth-led campaign for electoral reform and says it holds peaceful protests within the Constitution. Its members have mocked the allegations on social media, sharing GIFs and taunts that question the minister’s claims. The row follows weeks of tension over the Special Intensive Revision, which has already led to court cases over deleted voters and the use of Form 6 for re-enrolment. The CJP foreign funding allegations add a new charge to that dispute, linking a protest movement to money from outside the country.
The dispute sits inside a wider argument over the Special Intensive Revision, which the Election Commission is carrying out in several states. The revision has already led to court cases over deleted voters and the use of Form 6 for re-enrolment, and the Supreme Court is due to hear objections to the Commission’s position on 19 November. For the CJP, the funding claims are the latest in a series of clashes with the government over the revision.
Singh said the authorities have concrete evidence linking the group’s leaders to overseas financiers, but the material has not been placed in the public domain. The CJP has demanded that the government produce the proof, including the source and the transactions. The minister’s remarks came as the group stepped up protests in Delhi against the revision of electoral rolls. Until that happens, the CJP foreign funding row remains a set of allegations and denials, with the electoral roll revision at its centre.