The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) is holding its second major protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Saturday, with supporters arriving carrying plates and spoons — an apparent evocation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2020 call to bang plates “in solidarity with Covid frontline workers”, now repurposed by this ironically named group as a demand for the education minister to resign.
CJP founder Abhijit Debaki did not elaborate on the response to the 2020 pandemic-era call. In a video message released on Friday, he said only: “All cockroaches joining tomorrow’s protest at Jantar Mantar should carry a slogan.” Thali And a Shamakh with you. And you know the rest of the story.”
Call 2020
The rest of the story goes back to March 22, 2020, when Prime Minister Modi, as part of the lockdown called the “Janata Curfew,” asked citizens to bang dishes and utensils for five minutes at 5 pm as a sign of solidarity with those on the front lines of the pandemic response. This gesture has since become a frequent trigger for ridicule of the Modi administration.
The protest at Jantar Mantar, scheduled to begin at 1 pm, is expected to attract students from Delhi and neighboring states as it did earlier this month in the CJP’s first ground demonstration since its formation on X and Instagram last month. Tight security has been imposed, with CCTV cameras installed in and around Jantar Mantar for real-time monitoring.
The group’s central demand remains the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over NEET-UG medical entrance examination paper leak and related issues. The re-test of NEET-UG is scheduled on June 21.
What Debke said
Debki, who was speaking from his village Santok Pimpri in Hingoli, Maharashtra, before leaving for Delhi, criticized the Centre’s decision to temporarily ban messaging app Telegram ahead of the NEET re-examination.
“This is like closing a road due to potholes instead of fixing it. Banning Telegram does not make any sense,” news agency PTI quoted the minister as telling reporters. He also claimed that five other students died by suicide due to this case.
In an open letter to the Prime Minister, Debaki urged the Center to provide assistance $1 crore as compensation to the families of students who died by suicide amid exam-related controversies, claiming that 11 students died by suicide in recent weeks.
“I write to you today with a heavy heart, to draw your urgent attention to the escalating crisis that threatens our nation’s very future — the lives and mental well-being of our young students,” DeBakey said in the letter.
He reiterated the demand for Pradhan’s dismissal: “The Sarsour Janta Party has been demanding the resignation of the Education Minister for the past month and has been protesting across the country for our demands. All we students want is to see some accountability for the loss of lives.”
He was also asked about the Shiv Sena (UBT) revolt that saw six of the nine Lok Sabha MPs switch sides. Debke targeted politicians more broadly. “These people should be ashamed. A girl, a NEET student, who lived just 500 meters from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ residence committed suicide,” he alleged. “They did not receive any phone call or any kind of help.”
He further said: “They (ruling politicians) have no money to give to the students’ families, and are using the money to buy MPs and MPs.”
Saturday’s demonstration is the CJP’s second protest at Jantar Mantar this month, after a rally on June 6, and comes after demonstrations in Pune, Lucknow, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Jaipur.
But Debke said the CJP – which was founded online on May 16 after India’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Surya Kant made some statements using the words “cockroaches” and “parasites” – would not contest the election.
He asked, “Why should we run in elections? If everyone in this country has to run in elections to demand their rights, how will it be done?” AAP’s former social media director told PTI.
