Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) co-convener Ashutosh Ranka on Wednesday, 2 September welcomed the Rajasthan government's statewide drive to restore dilapidated government schools, calling it a victory for students rather than for his organisation. The development came after restoration work commenced at a government school in Bagru, near Jaipur, weeks after a CJP inspection team was attacked at the same site.

The Bagru School Incident

The school in Bagru had drawn attention after a CJP team visited it for inspection on 21 August and came under attack — stones were hurled at the group, women members were allegedly misbehaved with, and car windows were smashed. Despite the hostility, the visit appears to have accelerated official attention on the school's condition.

Ranka said the restoration that followed was meaningful precisely because of what students had endured. Ashutosh Ranka said: 'We are happy that restoration work of that school has begun today even though stones were hurled at us, women were misbehaved with, and our car windows were broken. More than us, this is the victory of those students who have been studying at a buffalo shed for more than two years.'

Government's Statewide School Restoration Drive

Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Prem Chand Bairwa stated on Wednesday that the state government was the first to launch a campaign aimed at transforming and improving government schools across the state. He said all schools found to be in a dilapidated condition would be strengthened and restored, and that the Chief Minister had sanctioned the required funds to address infrastructure deficiencies.

Bairwa clarified that the use of a bulldozer at the Bagru school was not an isolated response to public pressure but part of a broader identification exercise already under way. 'The work was already being done everywhere earlier as well by identifying all the schools facing issues and running them through alternative arrangements. We were already carrying out work on that wherever such conditions exist,' he said.

Historical Context of School Infrastructure Decay

The Deputy Chief Minister also pushed back against suggestions that the infrastructure crisis was a recent or government-specific failure, noting that many of the affected structures were constructed several years ago. He argued it would be incorrect to suggest the problem emerged only after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in the state.

Notably, the sight of children attending classes in a buffalo shed for over two years underscores a systemic neglect that predates the current political cycle — a point that complicates efforts to assign responsibility cleanly to any single administration.

CJP's Broader Demand

Ranka stressed that quality education is a right for every student, regardless of state, and affirmed that the CJP would continue to advocate for improved school infrastructure. 'All schools across the country should be repaired like this,' he added, signalling that the organisation intends to widen its campaign beyond Rajasthan.

The restoration at Bagru will be watched as a test case for whether the state government's declared drive translates into sustained action across the hundreds of schools reportedly identified as structurally unsafe.