Abhijit Deepki, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party, said online on Monday that he will return to India on June 6 and will hold an offline protest, demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over recent errors in several exams across the country, including NEET, CBSE, SSC and CUET.
He said his party’s petition for Pradhan’s resignation has the support of 8,000 people.
Debaki posted a video message on the CJP’s official X handle, announcing his return to New Delhi.
“I return to my country, my homeland, India, to ask for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. You have seen for many days that we are raising our voice on social media, because of the paper leaks, the children who committed suicide, the hard work of thousands of students that has gone to waste – and for this reason, Dharmendra Pradhan must resign,” Debki said.
“8 thousand signatures on the Justice and Development Party’s petition”
The CJP has created an online petition on its website, calling for signatures in support of the demand for Pradhan’s resignation.
Debke said that 8,000 youth had signed the petition, noting that overall more than 1 crore students were affected by the disruptions in competitive exams. “Millions of people have supported this demand on social media as well. Not only this, there are protests going on in many places in the country like Lucknow, Jaipur, Maharashtra and Delhi, but they (the government) are yet to be affected.”
“Today, 22 lakh NEET students, 17 lakh CBSE students, 16 lakh CUET students, 40 lakh SSCGD students, there are more than 1 crore students whose lives have been made fun of by the system,” he added.
Read also | 3 Teens vs CBSE: How the OSM Class 12 paper examination system exploded, and the board corrected, defended and countered it
Because of these tensions, students feel “very anxious and worried about their future,” Debke said.
Debke said that if Pradhan failed to resign, it would mean there would no longer be accountability in India. He said it seemed as if the system could make many mistakes without consequences, leaving students to bear the brunt.
“How long will this continue? That’s why it’s time. We all have to come together and walk the path of the Constitution of India and raise our voice peacefully and demand Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation. If we all raise our voice together, he will have to listen to us,” Deepki asserted.
He invited CJP supporters to meet him at the Delhi airport on the morning of June 6, saying they would go together to the Parliament Street police station and get permission to protest peacefully at Jantar Mantar.
“CJP petition to dismiss Pradhan.”
So far, 7,94,518 people have signed the ‘Cockroach Janta Party petition to dismiss the Education Minister’, according to the movement’s website. The petition claims that the education system is “vulnerable.”
“From the tragic loss of students who died by suicide, to the millions of futures shattered by a decade of paper leaks, this failure cannot be ignored. There must be consequences. Sign below to demand the immediate dismissal of the Secretary of Education,” the petition reads.
Chaos and chaos in competitive exams
The Central government is facing increasing criticism from students and opposition parties after competitive examinations, including the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Combined University Entrance Test (CUET) and Staff Selection Commission GD Constable (SSC-GD) examinations, have faced multiple disruptions.
First, the NEET-UG 2026 exams, held on May 3, 2026, were canceled by the National Testing Agency (NTA) following an alleged nationwide paper leak. While the Central Bureau of Investigation is investigating the matter, the NTA has rescheduled the exams for June 21.
Read also | ‘First NEET, then CBSE, now CUET’: Modi govt faces fire over yet another exam ‘glitch’, NTA issues clarification on delay
Then the CBSE Class 12 board exams were mired in a series of errors. Students had to wait endlessly for results as the Board of Education kept sharing “coming soon” updates, with no results in sight. Later, CBSE’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) portal created tensions among students, many of whom claimed that the assessed answer sheets uploaded on the site were not theirs. One such student, who raised the matter on X, was widely ridiculed and labeled a “Pakistani”. However, CBSE later admitted the mix-up in the answer sheet.
Shortly after, a 19-year-old “ethical hacker” claimed to have discovered massive irregularities and vulnerabilities in the OSM portal. Another 17-year-old raised flags after an OSM contract was “checked”.
Read also | No need to tease ‘Class 12 result soon’, OSM, hacking class: CBSE chaos in May, clarifications
Days after the 19-year-old’s allegations, CBSE on Sunday said it was “closely monitoring the situation” with a team of cybersecurity experts. The vulnerabilities identified in the OSM portal have been contained, it said, adding that “other exploitable vulnerabilities” have been ruled out.
“We are grateful to all the vigilant citizens and ethical hackers who pointed out these vulnerabilities, some of whom we have reached out to directly,” the board said in a statement on X.
After the ‘paper leak’ NEET-UG row, NTA faced another big blow with the delay of CUET exam. The exam, which was scheduled to be conducted on May 30, was postponed in some centers across the country due to a technical glitch, according to the NTA.
The agency said that the examination in the centers that witnessed the defect is conducted in full compensatory time, without any loss to applicants.
Chaos also escalated in the SSC GD exam, held on May 25, in several centers across Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, with students reportedly stranded at various places due to the sudden cancellation.
In one such case, authorities at the examination center in UP’s Kanpur had to cancel both shifts after nearly double the number of candidates were allotted seats. As many as 819 candidates were issued admit cards per shift in a center with a capacity of 399 candidates.
Several political leaders, including Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, and former Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, launched blatant attacks on Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. They criticized the controversy surrounding competitive examinations.
“NEET. CBSE. SSC. And today CUET. Four exams. One crore children. Not a single one conducted honestly,” Rahul Gandhi said in a post on X. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “completely destroyed the entire education system”.
Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee also criticized irregularities in NEET, CBSE and SSC GD exams, saying that “India’s youth are being pushed into a cycle of anxiety, uncertainty and betrayal”.
“Millions of students spend years in preparation, sacrificing sleep, resources, mental peace and family expectations in the hope that hard work will secure their future. What do they receive in return? Paper leaks, technical glitches, mismanagement, overcrowded centres, broken systems,” Banerjee posted on X.
