new delhi —
What started as an online joke has now spread to the streets of India’s capital.
Since Saturday, Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the satirical Cockroach Janta Party, has been camped out in central New Delhi, leading a crowd of protesters who refuse to leave until the education minister resigns over the scandal-plagued national exam system.
“We’re here for a long time, no matter how many days it takes,” Dypke told CNN from the protest site this week as dozens of supporters gathered around him. “We will stay here until Dharmendra Pradhan resigns.”
Dipke, a 30-year-old Boston University graduate, arrived in India earlier this month to lead a movement of disaffected Gen Z. After years of leaked exams, persistently high youth unemployment and increasingly unaffordable opportunities, many say their simmering frustration has led to demands for accountability that can no longer be ignored.
Why do Indians protest the government in diapers?
The founder of the satirical Cockroach Janta Party is encamped in the center of New Delhi, leading a crowd of protesters who refuse to leave until the education minister resigns over the scandal-plagued national exam system. CNN’s Lea Mogul reports.
The youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (a play on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party) was launched just last month, and its insect mascot comes from a comment by India’s chief justice that was interpreted as referring to India’s unemployed youth as “cockroaches.”
Mr. Dipke visited several Indian cities last week, joining thousands of angry demonstrators demanding the removal of the education minister. The protests culminated on Saturday with a rally at the Jantar Mantar memorial in New Delhi, from which Mr. Dipke has not left since then.
Throughout the week, hundreds of people gathered, holding posters, shouting slogans and singing songs. The Cockroach Janta Party is also encouraging demonstrators to bring a different symbolic prop to the venue each day.
Protesters were also seen offering roses to police officers on duty in an effort to maintain a peaceful atmosphere. Many people hoisted Indian flags and brought copies of the constitution to the demonstration.
Earlier in the week, participants arrived with ‘thalis’ (traditional iron platters) and spoons and banged them together in a cheeky nod to PM Modi’s call to rattle coronavirus-era utensils.
On Tuesday, protesters were asked to bring diapers and write demands for Pradhan’s resignation on them, a satire on the government’s inability to stop exam leaks, Dypke said.
“There is not even a fool-proof government exam in India,” Dipke said. “So that was another symbolism. It could be using diapers to prevent wetting.”
India’s make-or-break exam system is a high-stakes challenge to secure employment at a limited number of universities. Millions of students take the exam each year, competing for open spots where a few percentage points can determine a student’s future.
The system has long been mired in controversy, including leaked exam questions and technical glitches, placing an overwhelming burden on students and a financial burden on families who invest everything in their children for promises that often seem fragile.
Last month, more than two million students who took India’s largest medical entrance exam were told their results would be destroyed after their papers were allegedly leaked.
In the weeks since then, Indian media has reported several student suicides allegedly related to the immense pressure of exams, and this week Mr. Dipke and his supporters commemorated the suicides by lighting candles.
“We just wanted to honor the students who lost their lives because of the system,” Dipke said.
CNN has contacted India’s Ministry of Education regarding the issues raised by Dipke.
Pradhan appeared on Indian news channel NDTV this week and called the Roach Janta Party the “B-Team of terrorist groups”.
Dipke called the remarks “ridiculous” and claimed his group was seeking justice for students, especially those who died by suicide.
“Instead of taking moral responsibility, he labels us terrorists. I don’t think anything could be more sad.”
Authorities have set up tight security measures outside the venue for Sunday’s re-examination of the medical exam and have deployed military aircraft to transport exam papers.
As for the ongoing protests in New Delhi, a steady stream of volunteers continues to run the camps, delivering daily deliveries of food, water and other essentials.
When CNN visited on Tuesday and Wednesday, the crowd fluctuated between 200 and 300 people during the day, but had swelled to about 500 people by the evening. As night fell, about 50 demonstrators remained asleep at the scene.
When asked about the future of the movement, Mr. Dipke said the Gokiri Janta Party was “still in a very early stage.”
“We have only been operating for a month, and we have been back in India for less than two weeks,” he said, outlining plans to create a “formal structure” across multiple states.
Mr. Dipke said he would ultimately aim to reform India’s exam system.
“We’re taking it one step at a time,” he said, adding: “We’re going to make a statement.”
