A campaign that originated as an online satire has escalated into a physical demonstration on the streets of India’s capital. Since Saturday, Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party, has maintained a protest camp in central New Delhi. He and his fellow demonstrators have vowed to remain at the site until the nation’s education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, steps down in response to the scandals surrounding the country’s examination system.
Dipke, a 30-year-old alumnus of Boston University, returned to India earlier this month to spearhead this movement of disillusioned Gen Z individuals. Faced with a persistent cycle of exam leaks, high unemployment rates, and limited career prospects, these protesters argue that the need for government accountability has reached a breaking point. The Cockroach Janta Party, formed last month as a parody of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, takes its name from remarks by India’s chief justice which were widely viewed as labeling unemployed youth as cockroaches.
Following rallies across several Indian cities, the movement gathered at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar monument last Saturday. Demonstrators have used various symbolic props to convey their message, including roses for police officers and the display of the Indian flag alongside the constitution. Early in the week, participants brought traditional steel plates and spoons to create noise, a nod to earlier pandemic-era gestures. On Tuesday, protesters brought diapers to the site, with Dipke noting that they were intended as a sarcastic comment on the government’s failure to prevent the widespread leaking of exam papers.
The integrity of India’s high-stakes exam system has been under intense scrutiny due to frequent paper leaks and technical issues, which place immense financial and emotional burdens on families. Recently, officials had to scrap the results of a major medical entrance exam taken by over two million students after allegations of leakage emerged. Dipke and his supporters also held candlelit vigils this week to commemorate students who have reportedly died by suicide due to the pressures of the testing system.
When asked about the situation, Education Minister Pradhan described the protest group as the “B-team of terror groups” during an interview with NDTV. Dipke rejected this characterization as “ridiculous,” emphasizing that his movement seeks justice for students. Authorities have meanwhile tightened security for re-sits of the medical exams, even using military aircraft to transport test documents.
The protest site, sustained by a rotation of volunteers providing food and water, sees daily attendance between 200 and 300 people, rising to about 500 in the evenings, with roughly 50 individuals sleeping there overnight. Dipke described the current action as an early phase, stating that he intends to build a structured organization across multiple states to pursue his long-term goal of reforming India’s examination framework.
