NEW DELHI: Five weeks after the Cockroach Janta Party folded up its tents at Jantar Mantar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is still absorbing the political cost of the most serious public challenge of his third term.
The movement began with an insult. On May 15, 2026, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant compared unemployed youth and social media activists to “cockroaches” and “parasites of society.” The following day, Abhijeet Dipke — a political communications strategist who previously worked with the Aam Aadmi Party — founded the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a satirical parody of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, under the slogan “Voice of the Lazy & Unemployed.”
Within days it had drawn over 350,000 sign-ups and more than 20 million Instagram followers. It was never registered with the Election Commission of India. It did not need to be.
The movement moved offline on June 6, converging on Jantar Mantar in central New Delhi alongside established left-leaning student bodies including the All India Students Federation, the All India Students Association and the Students’ Federation of India. Volunteers turned up in cockroach costumes.
The grievance was concrete: a string of leaks in national examinations for university seats and government jobs, most damagingly the 2026 NEET medical entrance paper leak in May, which forced roughly two million students to sit the test again. Protesters held Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan responsible and demanded his resignation.
On June 28, Ladakhi environmentalist and education activist Sonam Wangchuk joined the demonstration and began an indefinite hunger strike. In mid-July, following a leadership change in the Delhi Police, officers removed barricades at the site and transferred Wangchuk to hospital — a move organisers said was carried out against his will. He eventually broke his fast after 26 days, in the presence of BJP president J.P. Nadda and Union minister Jitendra Singh Rana, following written assurances.
The protests escalated sharply on July 20, when police fired tear gas and baton-charged demonstrators attempting to march on Parliament. More than 100 people were severely wounded. Authorities shut 16 metro stations around the protest site citing “security concerns,” and suspended mobile internet services at Jantar Mantar. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International both condemned the “excessive use of force.”
Modi first responded publicly by pledging fast-track courts to prosecute exam-leak cases. It was not enough.
On Saturday, July 25 — day 36 of the agitation, which had by then spread to more than a dozen cities — Pradhan tendered his resignation.
“We have done it, we have done it,” Dipke shouted into a microphone at Jantar Mantar as the news broke, before falling to his knees and raising a fist. Nineteen-year-old protester Lavanya Bharti told reporters: “They called us lazy and unemployed. We are lazy enough to sleep on our Parliament Street for days; we are unemployed, bro. We have erased the fear that Modi spent years building.”
CJP spokesman Saurav Das called on demonstrators to go home, saying the protests would end “in good faith.” One central demand remains outstanding: compensation for the families of students who died by suicide following the paper leaks and exam cancellations.
Dipke’s parting words at the site were pointed. “This is not the end. We will meet again soon.”
Pradhan’s exit is widely read as a serious setback for the BJP and a dent in Modi’s strongman image — the government had, until then, largely refused to sack ministers under public pressure.
The electoral consequences followed quickly. In the first week of August, the BJP lost two of three by-elections — Bankipur in Bihar and Datia in Madhya Pradesh — both in states it governs.
In his Independence Day address on August 15, Modi said India had succeeded in “getting rid of armed Naxals,” but warned that “dimagi Naxals” — intellectual Naxals — were looking for opportunities to create violence and needed to be “identified and isolated.” The phrase echoed the politically loaded “urban Naxal” label the BJP has long applied to activists, academics and critics. Modi did not mention the protests directly, but devoted much of the speech to initiatives aimed at young Indians, including AI skills training and free online coaching for competitive examinations.
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