The ‘cockroaches’ who refuse to crawl away
Students and youth protesters, organized under the Cockroach Janta Party, are staging ongoing demonstrations at Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan following the NEET paper leak scandal. Despite police crackdowns and reports of brutality, the movement has expanded across major Indian cities, fueled by viral social media documentation of the protests.
Why it matters
The movement represents a significant surge in youth-led political mobilization in India, highlighting deep-seated frustrations over educational integrity, unemployment, and the state's response to civil dissent.
L athis, tear gas, and even pellet guns did not stop them . On July 23, three days after thousands of people, mostly students, were targeted by security forces , many of them returned yet again to Jantar Mantar, New Delhi’s designated protest site, demanding the resignation of the Union Minister of Education, Dharmendra Pradhan. Their chants rang out across the protest site, “ Sharam karo, sharam karo ; Dharmendra Pradhan isteefa do (Have shame and resign, Dharmendra Pradhan).”
Among the sea of protesters gathered, a group of them, mainly supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) , has remained at the site for 34 days. The CJP was founded by Abhijeet Dipke as an online satirical response to remarks by the Chief Justice of India , who referred to unemployed youth as “cockroaches”.
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