Md Irfan, not Dipke, is rare find from CJP protest: Unheard voice of young India
By the time Mohammad Irfan stopped speaking, Rajat Pandey had goosebumps. The journalist from The Lallantop was covering the Cockroach Janta Party's (CJP's) protest at
By the time Mohammad Irfan stopped speaking, Rajat Pandey had goosebumps. The journalist from The Lallantop was covering the Cockroach Janta Party's (CJP's) protest at New Delhi's Jantar Mantar expecting another day of slogans, speeches and political theatre. Instead, amid the distressed crowd after the crackdown by security forces on July 20, a youth in a blue T-shirt walked up to him and quietly changed the story. Read Full Story "I literally had goosebumps while he was speaking," Pandey told India Today Digital. "People often make ideological arguments. But when Irfan spoke, there was no performance. He had lived every word he was saying. That's why he never fumbled while speaking," he added. "This was the best interview of my career," said Pandey of The Lallantop, India Today Digital's sister media outlet. The internet also agreed with Rajat Pandey's feelings. Everyone who watched Irfan's interview ended emotional and surprised. What people found exceptional was that Mohammad Irfan never went to school. The unlettered, 35-year-old hawker from a slum in Delhi gathered all the knowledge from Google, interacting through its voice search. Not just clarity on matters of democracy and labour rights, Irfan recited verses from Bhagat Singh's poems too. Within hours, clips of Mohammad Irfan speaking on democracy, dignity, labour rights and India's education system exploded across social media. The man who had never entered a classroom was suddenly explaining the Constitution with a clarity that left journalists, politicians and millions online stunned. The CJP movement might have found its mascot in Abhijeet Dipke, the CJP that was formed as a satirical online phenomenon, but the movement's most enduring discovery might well be Mohammad Irfan, a daily wage hawker from Delhi's Sawda JJ Colony who unknowingly became the conscience of a protest that was never about him. Such has been Mohammad Irfan's popularity that on Monday evening, Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, visited him. Rahul Gandhi made him talk to his sister and fellow MP Priyanka Gandhi on the phone and invited him to Parliament, Irfan told The Lallantop on Monday evening. LIFE OF MOHAMMAD IRFAN BEYOND JANTAR MANTAR PROTEST SITE The Lallantop team, after Irfan's interview blew up on social media, travelled to Sawda JJ Colony as Pandey insisted that Irfan's story did not end at Jantar Mantar.
The house they found was little more than an unfinished structure. There was no proper ceiling. Parts of the building remained incomplete. Before the journalists arrived, Irfan sprayed perfume inside because, as he explained with embarrassment, the smell from the animals could otherwise overwhelm the guests. The first thing that strikes most viewers about Irfan's home is not poverty. It is how poverty has been normalised. This is where the internet's newest political philosopher returns every evening after selling ice to earn around "Rs 500 a day". "I earn Rs 500 a day. If there's a medical emergency, who will be responsible? How can someone study? How can someone wear clean clothes while earning only Rs 500 a day?" Irfan questioned with slight tears in his eyes. His question was never rhetorical. For Irfan, it is daily arithmetic he has been living in for years. He was just sharing his lived experiences in a way that magically entwined with the nation's hopes, aspirations and failures. MOHAMMAD IRFAN'S FIGHT FOR LABOUR RIGHTS Irfan repeatedly insisted that he never went to Jantar Mantar to become famous. He went because, in his view, nobody speaks for India's blue-collared labour force. "Nobody talks about the labour force and their misery," he told The Lallantop. "Labourers don't hit the streets because if they miss one day's work, they lose one day's income." Irfan also speaks about the labour laws and the exploitation of poor workers with surprising fluency. He said that Rs 18,000 was the minimum wage a labourer should be paid for an eight-hour shift. "The labour laws are no longer strict. People are made to work for 12 to 14 hours and receive salaries of only Rs 12,000 or Rs 13,000. With this inflation, workers are not being paid according to their hard work," he said. "People can't even protest because there is always someone to replace them at that wage," he said, explaining the predicament. Irfan also revealed that he had been taking part in several protests, including Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2024. "I travelled from Delhi to Kashmir in Rahul Gandhi's Padayatra," Irfan said. On being asked if he had participated in any other Rahul-led protest, he answered in the negative.
The BriefWire