India’s youth strain to be heard as angry ‘cockroaches’ stage New Delhi march

NEW DELHI – Thousands of anguished and distressed youngsters gathered in protest in India’s capital on June 6, rallying under the banner of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a newly formed viral youth movement, to demonstrate their anger against recurring exam paper leaks and other crises affecting the country’s youth.

Protesters, led by CJP representatives, are calling for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, as well as accountability from the government to ensure that competitive entrance exams are conducted with fairness and transparency.

These protests follow the annulment of the highly competitive national undergraduate medical school entrance exam – known as the National Eligibility Entrance Test (Undergraduate) or NEET-UG – on May 12, after it emerged that the question paper had been leaked. Copies were reportedly sold for anywhere between 500,000 rupees (S$6,800) and three million rupees.

“I have totally lost my faith in the NTA,” protester Utkarsh Raj told The Straits Times, referring to the National Testing Agency, an autonomous government organisation that conducts the NEET-UG exams, as well as many others for admission into higher education institutions.

“At least conduct one exam fairly... and if (Dharmendra Pradhan) can’t do that, then why (is he) sitting in the post of the education minister,” he added. Raj sat the NEET-UG exam in 2026 and said he had done well enough to get into a government medical school. Recurring exam paper leaks, Raj added, have left him dejected though.

These leaks, together with unemployment and rising inequality, have added to simmering unrest and anger among the young in India. Nearly 40 per cent of Indian graduates aged 25 and below are unemployed, while around 20 per cent of those aged between 25 and 29 are still without jobs, according to the State of Working India 2026 report by Azim Premji University in Bengaluru.

This sentiment has propelled CJP’s stunning growth, with over 22.2 million followers on Instagram since its creation on May 16, more than Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has a following of 9.4 million.

Far and wide

The June 6 event was the movement’s first major offline protest, aided by the arrival earlier in the day of its founder, Abhijeet Dipke, from the US – where he was studying – as well as other prominent supporters, including Sonam Wangchuk, an education reformer and climate activist from Ladakh.

Sweat trickled behind cockroach masks that protesters wore in the intense Delhi summer heat as they held aloft posters. “Accountable Government Not Found”, read one with the common “404 Error” symbol that represents a broken link online.

The satirical movement was born less than a month ago after Indian Chief Justice Surya Kant referred to unemployed youngsters as “parasites” and “cockroaches” during a courtroom hearing in May. The judge later claimed he had been misquoted.

Other protesters arrived with flowers for police personnel deployed at the site, and also carried the Indian flag and copies of the Indian Constitution, in deference to CJP’s calls for a peaceful protest.

Speaking to his supporters at the site, CJP founder Dipke said: “For the past 10 to 12 years, these people (politicians in power) have kept us trapped in Hindu-Muslim politics – who benefited from this? Did Hindu-Muslim politics get jobs for anyone in the country?”

Dipke’s remark is a reference to allegations that the BJP has indulged in communal politics to hold on to power, instead of providing jobs for the country’s youth.

Anger has also mounted among the public following reports of suicides by youngsters who had appeared for the now-cancelled NEET-UG exam. Among them is the case of Akanksha Chaturvedi, the 18-year-old daughter of a cook who had dreamt of becoming a doctor.

She had prepared for more than a year for the NEET-UG entrance exam held on May 3. Her family supported her, too, taking loans and borrowing money from relatives to fund her coaching classes.

Their efforts seemed to have paid off, with Chaturvedi doing well in the exam and hoping to get into a good medical school despite intense competition. More than 2.2 million students had fought it out for around 120,000 seats at institutions across the country.

But Chaturvedi’s hard work ultimately amounted to naught after NEET-UG was annulled. This broke Chaturvedi’s morale so much that she killed herself on May 20.

“I would have scored good marks in my first attempt, but now there is no guarantee that I will perform well again. I am sorry, Mum and Dad. I have ruined everything,” she added in her suicide note. Three other NEET-UG exam takers this year have also reportedly committed suicide. A fresh exam is now scheduled for June 21.

At the protest site on June 6, much of the focus was on exam paper leaks and calls for Pradhan to step down, amid wider calls for government accountability and a better democracy.

News reports and statements from opposition leaders claim that around 89 examination papers for admissions into higher education institutions and government jobs have been leaked across India over the last decade, building up frustration among the country’s youth.

According to The Indian Express newspaper, investigations into 45 major exam paper leaks over the past two decades remain trapped in legal quicksand or have simply hit a dead end. Only two of these cases have led to convictions.

The anger is widespread and many protesters had come from beyond Delhi.

Sheikh Yunus, 22, a nursing undergraduate, rode all the way from Hyderabad in southern India on a motorcycle to express his anger at problems that have also bedevilled NEET postgraduate exams, including multiple postponements and last-minute changes.

“The government should do its job properly,” he said, holding a poster that featured an image of a skeleton sitting on a bench with words that read “Waiting for Government Exams that don’t leak”.

Another protester, Muskan (who uses only one name), 25, qualified for the Junior Research Fellowship, an Indian government scholarship that funds candidates to pursue a full-time PhD, in 2026.

She cleared it in her fourth attempt and did so only after she and other candidates protested and approached the court, seeking corrections to errors in the history paper that had cost them marks.

“I can therefore understand the pain really well after a paper is leaked or results are unfair, especially when you are eligible, have worked hard and know that you are right,” she said.

Other youngsters, even though not directly affected by recurring exam crises, were there to support the protests too. Zohravar Singh Bhati, 25, a law graduate looking for a job, said he was there to “make sure that people’s voices are heard”.

“It’s our duty to make sure that exams go well... because the doctor who’s treating you, the engineer who’s building your bridges, the police officer whom you expect to not be corrupt, all of those people depend on a sound educational background. If they’re not well educated, if they’re not responsible citizens, they will be corrupt.”

Awakening the masses

The CJP had set a deadline of 7.30pm on June 6 for Pradhan to resign, failing which the party said it would launch protests across the country through the week, as well as return to Jantar Mantar – the designated protest site in New Delhi – on June 13.

Neither the Education Minister nor the Modi administration have responded publicly so far.

CJP spokesperson Vijeta Dahiya told ST their strategy would shift according to the “rapidly evolving situation”. “Our ultimate mission is to create the awareness among the masses that we live in a democracy and a democracy is a system of the people,” he added.

The large turnout at the site, he said, was evidence that “people had awakened”. “Now the whole country has awakened and no matter which party comes to power, we will ensure it works,” added Dahiya.

Parents, too, showed up with their children, as well as members of Gen X, those born between 1965 and 1980. Sudipta Sengupta, 54, came with large jars of water and packets of glucose biscuits for the protesters. A placard she held read: “With love, from Gen X to Gen Z.”

A management professor, Sengupta teaches ethics and said she “needed to walk the talk”. “What is it that they (CJP) are asking for? They’re asking for good education, they’re asking for a clean and transparent marking system, they’re asking for jobs. What’s wrong with that? How is it that someone cannot support this set of demands?”

But the future of this protest movement depends a lot on how well-structured and organised the CJP is and how it mobilises support, said Ruchi Gupta, executive director of the Future of India Foundation, an independent organisation focused on harnessing India’s demographic and democratic dividend.

“Protest can only be the first step. Any lasting change will require putting in an organisational structure – and ideological clarity – to be able to engage with the institutional political process,” she told ST. The party, just a few weeks old, has so far named three spokespersons and there is little clarity over how it intends to take its campaign forward.

Gupta noted that there was legitimate anger among the youth today, including over being blamed for not working hard enough when there is growing competition that is making it harder for them to succeed.

Lack of jobs, rising inequality and disillusionment with the larger establishment – not just the government but also a section of prominent corporate leaders who champion personal profits more than stewardship of a greater common good – are other factors driving youth angst, she added.

“But (despite all this), people have to be mobilised, and you can only mobilise people if there’s a structure.”