A heartbreaking tragedy has recently swept through Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat district. In a devastating health crisis between June and August, more than 30 children—primarily from the vulnerable Baiga tribal community—lost their lives to severe infectious diseases, including suspected measles and malaria. Yet, instead of letting the grieving families in remote villages like Adori, Korka, and Bondari mourn in peace, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) decided this was the perfect stage for a photo opportunity.

Leading the charge was the party’s founder and convenor, Abhijeet Dipke, who appeared completely intent on turning this highly sensitive matter into a cheap political spectacle. Like clockwork, he parachuted into the affected villages, seemingly to push his party's agenda even in this moment of profound grief and loss.

However, the local media present on the ground was far less welcoming than Dipke might have hoped. They were in absolutely no mood to give him an easy pass to exploit the situation. Journalists confronted a visibly confounded Dipke, who was utterly stunned by their sharp, pointed questions. As he sat comfortably inside his vehicle, the reporters grilled him on his incredibly delayed empathy.

“So, you have finally arrived to do politics over dead bodies? Now you have found the time to visit. How many days has it been (since the occurrence)? How much time has passed? And only now have you come to offer your condolences,” the reporters pushed Dipke for answers.

The bewildered CJP leader, realizing his public relations stunt was quickly unraveling, tried to make a flimsy apology to defend himself. But the local press cut him off before he could pivot, as media persons further pressed him with the uncomfortable truth: “You finally got content for political mileage, right?”

In a desperate attempt to save face, Dipke sought to argue that he had been in attendance for a longer time. The journalists immediately dismantled this defense. They challenged him by pointing out that two major court hearings regarding the matter had already occurred on the 3rd and 9th of September. Despite these highly public legal proceedings stemming from a citizen's public interest lawsuit, Dipke had only just managed to reach the district now—conveniently timed for maximum political theater.

Faced with no alternative and caught completely off guard, he helplessly reiterated, “Please, listen to me, I apologise for being late,” to which the reporters logically inquired whether it was right to casually make a mistake of this magnitude and then just offer a hollow apology. Highlighting his glaring hypocrisy, they emphasized: “If the government were to do the same, you would initiate a series of allegations against it.”

A sharp woman reporter then laid bare the apparent and ugly motive behind the visit, telling Dipke point-blank, “You don’t want to apologise; you want to do your politics over dead bodies.” To add to his embarrassment, Dipke was also reminded that his outrage was not only late but poorly timed; many children had already safely recovered, while others were still receiving treatment in state medical camps and hospitals.

The reporters did not stop at healthcare. They exposed his sheer ignorance of the region's recent progress. “You know this region is now Naxal-free. You did not say a word about that,” another journalist conveyed, putting the politician firmly in his place. It is a well-documented fact that Balaghat and the broader state of Madhya Pradesh were officially declared Naxal-free last December. Dipke was publicly told that the very paved road he had smoothly taken to reach the place was built only after the region was freed from red terror. The journalists again questioned what had prompted his sudden, highly suspicious visit to a place he had previously ignored.

Exposed and out of excuses, Dipke appeared to have little to say. Unable to face the heat, he eventually drove away in the four-wheeler as the questions became increasingly uncomfortable and successfully exposed his real purpose. The reporters repeatedly outlined that he had simply come there to advance his political agenda and chose to cowardly evade when faced with the hard reality on the ground.

Meanwhile, unlike the CJP's performative politics, the judicial system is taking concrete action. Taking serious note of the tragedy, the Madhya Pradesh High Court’s Jabalpur bench has asked the state government to submit its official response on the issue. While hearing a public interest lawsuit filed to address the outbreak, a division bench consisting of Acting Chief Justice Vivek Rusia and Justice Pradeep Mittal stepped in to demand accountability. The bench promptly sent formal notices to the state’s Health Department, the Women and Child Development Department, the Balaghat collector, and others, ensuring that the matter is handled with legal rigor rather than empty political grandstanding.