A 30-year-old Indian living in the US posted a one-liner on X in mid-May: “What if all the cockroaches got together?” As a sarcastic reaction to a comment made by the Chief Justice of India, he launched a satirical page called Kokruche Janta Party (CJP) on Instagram and X. Just over two weeks later, with teenage anger mounting over exam disputes, he prepares to put the “what ifs” to the test.
CJP founder Abhijit Debaki, who misses the usual birth year of Generation Z by just one year, announced on Monday, June 1, that he will travel to India on June 6 to lead a peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over a series of failed exams.
It comes as youth fears, centered around unemployment, have since increased, with teenagers exposing loopholes in exam systems too.
Some student unions held offline protests on Monday outside the ministry’s offices in New Delhi. A young woman arrested by police said, “We will not allow this government to manipulate our future. We are not afraid of anything.”
Dipke’s ad thus seeks to turn an almost entirely online movement, which includes more than 20 million followers on Instagram plus some on other platforms, into an actual movement.
Jantar Mantar Plan
Debki, a Maharashtrian who lived in the United States for two years as a student, said he turned down recent job offers there because of his love for India.
He asked his supporters to gather at the Delhi airport on the morning of June 6, where he said they would go together to the Parliament Street police station to obtain permission for the demonstration.
With the June 6 march, Debke seeks to bring together citywide protests that emerged separately and channel them into a single demonstration in the capital. He was once part of the AAP’s communications team, which also emerged from a somewhat similar moment more than a decade ago.
Debaki admitted that his family feared that he would be arrested upon arrival.
Four exams, three teenagers
The protest call culminates weeks of anger over four tests in particular. The NEET-UG medical entrance exam, conducted on May 3, was canceled by the National Testing Agency (NTA) following a paper leak; The CBI is investigating and the re-test is scheduled to be held on June 21, with the government planning to field question papers using the Indian Air Force. The government told the Supreme Court that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “personally supervising” the retest.
CBSE Class 12 results were affected by repeated delays of ‘coming soon’ and then due to problems with the on-screen marking (OSM) system for the first time. The SSC-GD Constable exam on May 25 led to chaos at centers in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar – in one Kanpur center, 819 candidates were issued admit cards per shift against a capacity of 399. The CUET-UG entrance exam was postponed at some centers on May 30 due to a technical glitch.
Much of this anger was driven by three teens whose posts went viral.
Vedant Shrivastava, a Class XII student in Delhi, discovered that the physics answer sheet sent to him by CBSE was not his; He was trolled online and labeled “anti-national”, a Pakistani and a “deep state agent” before the board acknowledged the mix-up and sent the correct version.
Sarthak Siddhant, 17, claimed in a blog post that CBSE rewrote its tender rules to favor the company that runs the OSM, Coempt EduTeck.
Nisarja Adhikari, 19, claimed to have found a “master password” in the tag gate code; CBSE initially denied the allegation, then said the vulnerabilities had been “contained”.
The CJP has brought them all together in one demand for accountability.
The motion was born from the judge’s comment
The Cockroach Janta Party takes its name from a remark made by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, who compared some unemployed youth to “cockroaches” and “parasites” – a comment he later said referred to holders of fake degrees.
Debaki, a public relations professional and political strategist who studied journalism in Pune, earned a master’s degree in public relations from Boston University, and once worked on social media campaigns for the Aam Aadmi Party, has redefined the word.
His party calls itself the “Youth Front, by the youth, for the youth.”
Debke said the project began as a kind of mockery, and he is now considering whether to turn it into a credible movement or an official political party, although no decision has been made yet.
He noted on June 1 that nearly 8 lakh people had signed the CJP website petition seeking Pradhan’s removal, and that more than 1 crore students across NEET, CBSE, CUET and SSC-GD exams had been affected.
He also said that protests over exam disruptions have already been organized offline in cities including Lucknow, Jaipur, Delhi and in Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, the government has blocked CJP’s account on X, a matter now before the Delhi High Court, which on May 29 refused to immediately restore it and asked a review committee to examine the blocking.
Debke says it has been designated a “threat to national security” by the blocking logic.
A police cover was placed on his family’s home in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. His parents hoped he would go no further. “People like this get arrested,” his father said.
The cockroach idea has since spread far beyond Debke. Deepak Sharma, a religious storyteller in UP, dressed up as an insect to highlight Yamuna pollution and float a separate ‘Joint Justice Platform’ (CJP). The “Indian Bee Party” also appeared.
The youth wing of the main opposition Congress party launched the “Cockroaches of Indian Youth” campaign.
A lawyer in Haryana even approached the Election Commission to register CJP as a party in his capacity as convener.
Indicating the real spread, Punjab Police warned against scammers spreading phishing links in the name of the movement.
Open sees a moment of reckoning for Modi
Political reactions among opposition parties have largely sided with pro-cockroach rhetoric. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has been constantly raising the issue of exams, accusing Prime Minister Modi of destroying the education system. He praised Generation Z for raising their issues, and mocked claims by BJP supporters that such protest movements could be a “global conspiracy to destabilize India”.
AAP’s Atishi and TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee also attacked Pradhan, while the Communist Party of India (Maoist), Samyukt Kisan Morcha and activist Sonam Wangchuk supported the campaign.
Leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have questioned his credentials. Lok Sabha MP Nishikant Dubey emphasized Dipke’s association with the AAP, while Minister Kiren Rijiju claimed that a large percentage of the CJP’s followers were from Pakistan, although Dipke cited analyzes to show that about 95% of his followers are in India.
Beyond exams, the CJP seeks to tap into broader youth frustration into a peaceful movement for change, Debke told Reuters news agency. Government data indicates that the unemployment rate among Indians between the ages of 15 and 29 was about 9.9% last year, more than three times the overall rate of about 3.1%, while this period also saw rising fuel prices and gas shortages related to the Iran war, the news agency noted in the context.
However, Minister Pradhan said he took “full responsibility” for the disruptions to the examination system. He promised he wouldn’t There may be other errors.
Fixes are still being implemented – CBSE’s Class 12 re-evaluation portal, which was already delayed once, was not up till Monday evening. It was originally scheduled to open on May 29.
