CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses Suicide.
What started as a meme has turned into India’s biggest youth-led protest movement, with students taking to the streets over a broken education system only to be met with police brutality.
How the Jantar Mantar protests started in Delhi, India
NEET-UG is India’s national medical entrance exam, and around 2.27 million to 2.28 million students took it on May 3, before the exam was cancelled on May 12 after authorities found evidence the paper had leaked.
That matters because NEET is basically the gatekeeper to medicine in India, so when the exam collapses, it derails years of study and family sacrifice. Reporting pointed to circulating “guess papers”, allegations of organised cheating and a wider exam corruption problem.
The human cost is what pushed the anger over the edge. In the weeks after the cancellation, reporting linked the chaos to a string of student suicides, with coverage putting the number at 11, 12 and 13 reported deaths across a matter of weeks.
But the issues expands beyond this exam, with the country recording 14,488 student suicides in 2024, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau data released last month.
This is where the Cockroaches come in.
Who are the Cockroaches?
The Cockroach Janta Party started as a literal joke, a meme aimed at Narendra Modi‘s government handling of youth issues, unemployment and education.
It began in May, in response to a comment the Chief Justice of India’s Supreme Court made comparing young unemployed people to “cockroaches” and “parasites”.
Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the cockroach movement, who was living in the US at the time, wrote on X that day: “What if all cockroaches came together?” From there Dioke kept growing the movemement.
It’s vision according to its website is to “build a party for the young people who keep getting called lazy, chronically online, and — most recently — cockroaches.”
“That’s it. That’s the mission. The rest is satire.”
The name is a play on BJP — mocking the ruling party by calling itself the CJP.
Over the past week, the protests have centred on Jantar Mantar and the “Sansad Chalo” march towards Parliament. Hundreds of students and supporters kept returning to the site even after police used tear gas and baton charges, and Delhi authorities tightened security across the capital’s political core with heavy barricading, route closures, vehicle checks and a huge police-and-paramilitary deployment.
Delhi Police said more than 118 police personnel were injured, while the BBC reports around 70 protesters were detained, about 60 protesters were hurt, while Dipke said 150 protesters were receiving treatment in hospitals.
A journalist covering the protest sustained 26 small, round wounds noted to be made by metal pellets in medical reporting.
The journalist told The Scroll, under anonymity, “I saw one personnel pointing a pellet gun at me. I turned around and started running and was hit in my back and hand.”
Delhi Police has denied that its forces used pellet guns on protestors.
What protesters want
The demands are pretty direct. Protesters want accountability over the leak, proper reform of the exam system and the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
They are also asking the government to stop pretending this is a one-off scandal. From the students’ perspective, the leak is just the clearest sign of a system that has been failing them for years.
A 26-Day hunger strike
Sonam Wangchuk became one of the movement’s most visible faces after joining in and starting a hunger strike in support of the protests. He is an educator, engineer and long-time activist from Ladakh, and his involvement helped push the movement far beyond Delhi.
He ended the fast today after 26 days, saying he did so after “a long negotiation on various conditions and in view of possible violence in the country”. He also said, in posts and interviews around the decision, that the strike ended because there had been discussions with ministers and because he did not want the situation to escalate further.
Gen Z wins at protesting
Obviously, this is a very serious moment in India, but I can’t help but give snaps to my fellow Gen Z protesters who are changing the game if a protest.
Think videos of protesters running away from police set to the Subway Surfer theme, to protest GRWM videos and one diva who literally reapplied her lipstick in front of a line of riot police. The BBC reported a comment that said, “She was serving face at the protest because the government couldn’t serve justice”.
It’s clear Gen Z is bringing humour to this movement — it’s how we process and it’s honestly how we communicate at this point. The normal infographic, press release, TikTok vid has not had cut through, but the memes have.
Before you wave your fist at the sky and accuse them of making light of the situation, I think we should remember that the real joke is the government’s response.
Modi’s response to the protests
Modi has now publicly responded, announcing fast-track courts for exam leak cases and posting: “Nothing is more important than the welfare and future of our youth!”
Nothing is more important than the welfare and future of our youth!
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 23, 2026
We have decided to set up fast-track courts to ensure swift and stringent punishment for those involved in paper leaks. Have directed the concerned authorities and officials to take all necessary steps in this…
When did it become normal for policy to be announced through a tweet while students are still on the street dealing with tear gas and batons?
What the government has actually done, though, is keep the pressure on the protest itself. Delhi Police insisted no permission had been granted for the march, imposed prohibitory orders under section 163, sealed roads leading to Parliament, shut down metro stations in the area and kept the protest zone under intense surveillance.
Australia’s response to Delhi protests
There has not been an official Australian government response specifically to the protests, although Anthony Albanese was seen acting like BFFs with Modi on the Indian PM’s recent visit down under. The pair finalised a uranium agreement between countries and signed a joint declaration on defence during the visit. So, I’m not sure a statement of condemnation is on the cards for Albo atm.
However, solidarity vigils are been organised by diaspora all over the country to stand with students protesting in India.
What happens now
So what happens now is mostly a test of who blinks first. The students are waiting for actual accountability and exam reform, while the government is trying to contain the unrest with force. The protests are still active and organisers are not acting like this is close to over with protests planned to spread across the country, because the thing about cockroaches is that once you see one, there are hundreds more where that came from.
Help is available.
If you’re in distress, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or chat online. If it’s an emergency, please call 000.
Under 25? You can reach Kids Helpline at 1800 55 1800 or chat online.
Reach out to Headspace or Beyond Blue for support, or make an appointment with your GP.
Lead image: Getty
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