Anish Gawande, national spokesperson for the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), has drawn attention after reports that CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke stayed at his Delhi residence during protests led by Sonam Wangchuk and the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms. Dipke was reportedly changing clothes at the home when police moved to clear protesters from Jantar Mantar on July 18.
Gawande said officers entered the building and briefly detained Dipke on the staircase. He alleged that Dipke was mistreated during the arrest and that shouts could be heard. Delhi Police have not confirmed the claims.
Gawande criticized the clearance of Wangchuk, who ended a nearly 20-day hunger strike after transfer to Safdarjung Hospital due to health issues. He accused police of acting without written orders and claimed the goal was to end the protest rather than address medical needs. He called for greater public participation in the agitation.
Gawande has publicly supported the CJP campaign and expressed solidarity with Wangchuk through social media.
The first openly gay national spokesperson of an Indian political party, Gawande previously worked as an LGBTQ+ activist, writer and founder of Pink List India, a database of politicians backing LGBTQ+ rights.
Grandson of freedom fighter T.K. Tope, he studied at Mumbai schools before earning degrees in Comparative Literature at Columbia University and Intellectual History and Public Policy at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
After considering academia, Gawande entered politics in 2018 and was named NCP (SP) national spokesperson in August 2024.
He recently backed the film Satluj on human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra after its removal from Zee5, criticizing the decision as limiting discussion of Punjab’s history.
