‘Cockroaches on ground’: At first protest, CJP calls for Dharmendra Pradhan’s exit

Addressing the crowd, Dipke set a deadline. He said that if Pradhan did not resign by 5 pm, the CJP would take its protest to cities across the country through the week, and return to Jantar Mantar the following Saturday.

At a press conference later in the day, CJP spokespersons said Pradhan should either resign or be dismissed within a week, failing which the movement would “spread throughout the country”.

Pradhan has been under fire for a series of recent controversies, including the leak of the NEET-UG questions and the chaos and confusion over the on-screen marking system used in CBSE’s Class 12 exam.

“You can delete our post but you cannot erase us,” Dipke said, referring to the deletion of the party’s X account — it was officially withheld in India on May 21 — which he framed as an attempt to suppress the movement.

He said his mother cried more on his return than when he had left for the US, as she feared that he would be arrested. “But this is not a fear that just my mother has. In this country, if any student or youth speaks on politics, speaks against this government, their mother fears they will be thrown behind bars,” he alleged.

“How long will we live in fear? Tell them, we are not scared,” he said. “The youth of the country will no longer fear, they will fight,” he said.

The day began hours earlier and several kilometres away, at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. Dipke, who flew in from the US, was met by senior police officers at Terminal 3 soon after clearing immigration.

Rather than have him approach the Parliament Street police station — where permission for a protest at Jantar Mantar is normally sought 24 hours in advance — police facilitated the clearance inside the airport itself to “avoid any chaos”, an official said.

Dipke was handed a permission letter allowing a single day’s protest at Jantar Mantar, between 10 am and 5 pm. He emerged at around 9:15 am holding a copy of B R Ambedkar’s My Autobiography. He told reporters waiting outside that the Education Minister “must resign”.

He later headed to Jantar Mantar, where, by the time the demonstration gathered pace, the crowd had swelled to several hundreds — overwhelmingly young, with a scattering of older supporters and parents. Many wore cockroach masks and carried textbooks, posters and the national flag, in keeping with the organisers’ appeal.

Activist Sonam Wangchuk, who arrived at Jantar Mantar in the afternoon, described the gathering as “an appeal rather than a protest”, saying the movement sought dialogue, not confrontation. “In a respected democracy, we hope we do not have to raise slogans to be heard,” he told the crowd, adding that the cooperation of the police was “a major achievement” and “a victory for India and even for the government”.

Wangchuk pressed for reforms beyond the immediate demand. “The foundation of a Viksit Bharat lies not in Delhi’s private schools but in schools located in villages,” he said. “The children of all elected representatives should study in government schools.”

He urged that the movement extend beyond exams to a systemic change across education and the environment, calling it “a beginning, not an end”, and appealing for it to be carried forward “with love and mutual respect.”

The protest remained largely peaceful, with participants offering flowers to police personnel, as the organisers had urged. There were brief moments of friction as small groups who raised “Jai Shri Ram” slogans attempted to enter the venue and were escorted out by police, but no major confrontation. Heavy security ringed the site, with around 2,000 security personnel deployed across the New Delhi district.

Addressing a press conference later, CJP spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka said their peaceful protest marked the beginning of a big movement. “The youth who were called anti-national, Pakistani… have proved that they are the youth of Gandhi and Ambedkar,” he said.

“This is a platform for the youth. It is the voice of young people whose concerns have been ignored by the government and the system for years. Today, it has been proved that the youth of this country are not silent,” he said.

Saurav Das, also a CJP spokesperson, said their supporters had gathered not only from Delhi, but also from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, the Northeast, Bihar and Chhattisgarh.

“Thousands of people joined the protest on the ground. But before this, 8 lakh people had signed a petition demanding Pradhan’s resignation,” he said, adding that the minister should either resign or be dismissed.

CPI leader Annie Raja and CPI-ML general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya were among those present at the venue.

The protest also drew support from other Opposition leaders, including Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and NCP (SP) leader Rohit Pawar, several of whom backed the demand for accountability over exam irregularities.

“The cockroach movement is an expression of huge anger and frustration experienced by the youth of this country. Rather than terming them anti-national, Modi government should address their issues. AAP supports their demands. The Prime Minister must sack the Education Minister immediately,” Kejriwal said a post on X.

“Those whom we call the destiny-makers and future of the country — thousands of young people — have come out on the streets in the scorching heat, carrying their pain and worries about their future… It is not right to belittle them by calling them ‘cockroaches’ and deny them justice… The NEET paper leak has devastated lakhs of young people. All these aggrieved young men and women are now raising their voices by becoming cockroaches. The government will have to listen to their demands. Do not underestimate the cockroaches,” the Sena (UBT) said in a statement.

Akhilesh Yadav posted a photograph of Dipke with Wangchuk on X, with a couplet in Hindi, translated as: “This voice has reached even the arrogant rulers; Listen, change is knocking at the door; Cracks have appeared in the fortresses, the foundation is crumbling; Now the youth too have staged a revolution.”

Meanwhile, speaking in Ranchi, BJP chief Nitin Nabin said: “Those who want to push the youth of this country towards negative politics, I warn them that the youth of India will engage in positive politics”.

According to a PTI report, Nabin, in an apparent reference to Dipke, said: “Some people sitting abroad assume they can give directions to the youth of India… Today’s youth want to work towards nation-building and secure their future. But some forces are trying to make the country’s youth anti-establishment”.

“The anti-establishment campaigns we witnessed in our neighbouring countries can never be for the country’s youth, who will work in a disciplined manner to build the nation,” he was quoted as saying, adding that the youth would not become a puppet in the hands of a few people.