Days after claiming that she was sexually assaulted during a Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-linked protest at Jantar Mantar, Yashaswinee Raje Singh has said she continues to support the protest movement and believes CJP succeeded in bringing a new generation into politics.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Singh said it would be “really, really shortsighted” to treat former Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation as a “watershed moment”. She argued that the resignation letter appeared “more of a martyr’s than of a… someone who’s remorseful and apologetic and holding themselves to account.”
Praising the protest campaign, she said, “CJP did a very, very great job of galvanising this sort of largely apolitical audience that usually steers clear of such conversations through their innovative messaging, through memes… and their focus was Instagram, which was great because that’s where we saw so much of the ordinary people’s coverage of the protests.”
She also criticised the appointment of the new Education Minister, saying, “Honestly, it feels like a very, very bleak joke.”
Responding to criticism over her support for the protests despite her family background, Singh said she did not consider herself hypocritical. “I’m financially independent. I live on my own… I’ve been in India for the last three and a half years, and I live by myself. I choose not to participate in that sort of environment at all… I maintain a very, very large sort of chasm between all of that and myself. And that is how I can say the things I do.”
Earlier she was sexually assaulted at protest, criticised volunteers’ response
Earlier, Yashaswinee Raje Singh, daughter of former BJP MLA Vikram Singh, had shared a post on X, detailing how she was sexually assaulted while attending the CJP protest at Jantar Mantar on 24th July. In the post, shared on 26th July, she said her intention was not to undermine the movement but to highlight what she described as hypocrisy within it.
— Yashaswinee Raje Singh (@ywineethepooh) July 26, 2026
According to Singh, the incident took place around 12:15 am when she and her sister were trying to move towards the main stage. After a barricade collapsed, they decided to leave due to safety concerns. She alleged that during the crowd movement, a man tried to grope her and force his hand between her legs, following which she slapped him three times.
Singh also mentioned that volunteers at the protest failed to help her. She claimed that instead of offering assistance, one volunteer shouted at her, asking, “Aap yahaan kyun aa rahe ho?” When she responded that women were being sexually assaulted at the protest, she alleged the volunteer continued shouting. She further claimed another volunteer dismissed the incident by saying, “Ab yeh sab galti toh hoti rehti hai. Aap udhar chale jao.”
