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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 8:56:24 pm

Build ‘model schools’ from PM CARES fund: CJP

Mumbai: In an unexpected surgical strike, the Cockroach Janta Party has questioned why a massive corpus of thousands of crores of rupees, lying in the Prime Minister CARES Fund, is kept idle when there are dire needs for funds in various sectors, particularly government schools – kicking off a new political storm – on Wednesday. CJP Founder Abhijeet Dipke today directly asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on what he termed as “so much of public money lying untouched and unutilised” in the PMCF...

Build ‘model schools’ from PM CARES fund: CJP

Mumbai: In an unexpected surgical strike, the Cockroach Janta Party has questioned why a massive corpus of thousands of crores of rupees, lying in the Prime Minister CARES Fund, is kept idle when there are dire needs for funds in various sectors, particularly government schools – kicking off a new political storm – on Wednesday. CJP Founder Abhijeet Dipke today directly asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on what he termed as “so much of public money lying untouched and unutilised” in the PMCF while state-run schools across the country continue to struggle for even basic infrastructure. Dipke said an amount of nearly Rs 8,500-cr shown in the PMCF as of March 2025 and demanded why this money could not be deployed for public education and other critical needs. He pointed at how schoolchildren in several parts of India continue to face shortages of drinking water, proper roads and even benches to sit on in classrooms, during his recent visits to some such government schools. “On one hand, Rs. 8,500-cr is lying unutilised, while on the other, children across the country have to demand proper roads, drinking water, benches and other basic infrastructure in schools. Instead this money could be diverted to setting up ‘Model Schools’ which could benefit the students and the society. Dipke contended that if a well-equipped ‘model school’ costs around Rs. 8-cr, the government could build more than 1000 such modern educational institutions with the idling PMCF corpus alone. Endorsing the views, the CJP posted: “So much of the public’s money is lying untouched and unaccounted for in a ‘Private Fund’ called the PM CARES Fund. Public schools cite a lack of funds for their poor condition, yet more than Rs. 8,450- cr. remains unused. If it is the people’s money, why can’t it be used to build and repair schools? Lack of funds was never the problem. Lack of intent is.” The CJP chief emphasised that since the money has come from the people it should ultimately serve the public causes, particularly for the education of the underprivileged children in far flung areas. Dipke’s statement came a day after the PMCF released its audited balance sheets which provided a new round of ammunition even to the Opposition, reviving questions that have shrouded the fund since its creation in March 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdowns. Interestingly, the PMCF balance sheet came days after a CJP leader had claimed in a press conference in New Delhi that the Jantar Mantar 28-day long agitation was allegedly financed from this fund. The PMCF gets no direct budgetary allocation and is funded through voluntary donations, and it is exempted under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FRCA) for which it maintains a separate account to receive overseas donations. Opposition piles on The Congress sought a comprehensive inquiry into the PMCF and alleged a possible nexus between corporate donations to it and awarding of plum government contracts awarded to some of the donor companies. AICC Scheduled Castes Department President and Uttar Pradesh In-Charge Rajendra Pal Gautam also questioned the “very need” for setting up the PMCF when the PM’s National Relief Fund was already operational since Jan. 1948. All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) MP Mahua Moitra picked purported flaws in the PMCF balance sheet released: “PM Doesn’t Care. R. 8,452-cr. lying unspent. Balance sheet is UNSIGNED. Some KKC Associates auditors with Gujarati partners Shah & Parekh have not even bothered with signatures, tracking or notes. Outside CAG, RTI or Parliaments scrutiny.” 'Still in the 60s': Dipke claims broken toilet doors, missing taps at Hingoli school Hingoli: Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke said a government school in Maharashtra's Hingoli district appeared to be stuck in the 1960s after he found broken toilet and classroom doors and missing taps in the washrooms. Dipke, whose group launched the 'School Thik Karo' (improve government schools) campaign last week, visited the school at Kadoli village in his native district on Tuesday. He went to the premises around 7.30 pm, after school hours, and checked the campus. A video of his visit to the school and subsequent interaction with the villagers has surfaced on social media. "It felt as if I was visiting a school in the 1960s. An old tin-roofed toilet, broken doors and no taps in the washrooms. What to do with these washrooms? Those concerned did not do their duty (in maintaining the school premises)," he said. He also had a word of criticism for the local residents. "The villagers are also wrong because they kept quiet," he said.

Constitutional Confidence

India’s Republic Day is often read through its splendid military pageantry which has become the symbolic visual shorthand for every January 26. But it is, in fact, an anniversary of restraint for in 1950, India chose to govern itself not by the passions of victory or grievance, but by a Constitution. As the country marks its 77th Republic Day, the past year offers evidence not just of spectacle, but of state capacity put to work.


The setting this year is heavy with symbolism. Kartavya Path will host a parade built around the national song ‘Vande Mataram’ which marked 150 years since Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote it.


Over the past year, India has demonstrated a greater willingness and ability to act decisively when its security interests are challenged. Operation Sindoor, which was the counterstrike launched in retaliation of the April 2025 Pahalgam massacre of civilians by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists, revealed our superior counter-terror and border-management capabilities.


The aim has been deterrence without escalation: signalling resolve while avoiding the sort of adventurism that once left India diplomatically isolated.


The parade will underline that shift. The army’s new battle array formation will showcase indigenous drone units, rocket systems and the debut of the Bhairav Light Commando Battalion that are meant to show a force reorganising itself for modern conflict rather than ceremonial display. The emphasis on domestically produced platforms is not just nationalist branding. Supply-chain disruptions, sanctions regimes and geopolitical uncertainty have made defence self-reliance less an ideological preference than a strategic necessity.


Diplomacy, too, has had a productive year. The presence of the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the European Council president, António Costa, as joint chief guests in the first such pairing signals how far India’s external stock has risen. Europe, anxious about overdependence on China and unsure of America’s long-term commitments, increasingly sees India as a stable democratic partner. For New Delhi, the EU-India summit that follows Republic Day is another chance to convert geopolitical goodwill into trade, technology and influence.


Beyond security and diplomacy, the republic has continued to consolidate its economic footing. Growth remains among the fastest in the world, while its public digital infrastructure has deepened financial inclusion, and manufacturing especially in electronics and defence has edged forward. Yet Republic Day is not meant to be a victory lap. The Constitution that came into force on January 26, 1950 was radical precisely because it assumed fallibility of leaders, institutions and majorities. Its checks and balances were designed for moments of confidence as much as moments of crisis. The achievements of the past year in operational assertiveness, diplomatic reach and economic resilience suggest a state more capable than it once was. The task ahead is to ensure that this capacity remains anchored to constitutional purpose. Republic Day endures not because of the parade, but because it renews a bargain that power, however effectively wielded, is ultimately answerable to the republic’s founding promises.

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