'Join BJP or parents will be in trouble' | Dipke's mother recalls 'video threat' her son received

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke's mother Anita Dipke on Wednesday claimed that soon after her son launched the satirical political movement, he received a video threat in which he was asked to join the BJP failing which his parents would land in trouble. In view of the threat, his parents had to leave Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and stay at their relative's place in the Konkan region for a fortnight, she said. Abhijeet's mother and father Bhagwan Dipke interacted with a Marathi news channel in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar before their son's scheduled return home after leading a 36-day agitation in New Delhi over the alleged irregularities in various exams, which culminated in the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

"Abhijeet had received threats but he did not tell us. He told me about a video and advised me not to see it. In the video, he was threatened that if he does not join the BJP, then his parents would be dealt with sternly," his mother claimed. She said Abhijeet later asked the parents to stay away from home for a few days. "Abhijeet told me that he was not afraid of such threats, but told us that as we are not used to such threats, we should stay away from home. After that, we decided to move out, and went to a relative's residence in Konkan where we stayed for 16 days," his mother said. ''He was worried as he was not with us at that time and because his father suffers from low blood pressure,'' she added.

His father said that while doing social work, one has to face criticism. "But there are people who applaud your work at the same time. Those whose thinking is 'fixed', they criticise, while some others deliberate on the happenings before reacting," he said. Dipke's mother said Abhijeet was scared of his father, and narrated an old incident. ''Once he brought a plumber home for some repair work. However, the plumber broke the pipe, which led to water getting accumulated in the entire house. That day, he was supposed to travel somewhere around 5 pm. But he packed some clothes and stepped out at 12 pm to avoid facing the wrath of his father,'' she said. ''He got the fault fixed immediately. But I did not tell his father about the incident for the next six months,'' she added.