New Delhi | Hundreds of protesters gathered at Delhi's Jantar Mantar on Saturday under the banner of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), demanding Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation over alleged irregularities in examinations and recruitment tests, with founder Abhijeet Dipke delivering the message not to be "scared".
At a press conference later, CJP spokespersons announced that they will wait for a week either for the Centre to sack Pradhan or his voluntary resignation, after which they would launch a countrywide protest.
Dipke, who called for the protest, arrived in Delhi from the United States on Saturday morning, walking out of the airport carrying a copy of B R Ambedkar's autobiography. After receiving permission from the Delhi Police, he reached Jantar Mantar, where crowds were gathering since morning.
Protesters, armed with posters demanding Pradhan's resignation, were seen wearing cockroach masks, which were being distributed at the venue. Besides demanding the education minister's resignation, the protesters also raised slogans demanding that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stop indulging in "Hindu-Muslim" politics, and hailed the motherland with "Bharat Mata ki Jai" slogans.
Dipke instructed them to only raise slogans hailing the country, Mahatma Gandhi and Ambedkar, while opposing communal politics.
The CJP founder said his mother cried more on his return than when he had left for the US, as she feared his arrest on coming back to India.
"This is not just the fear of my mother, this is the fear of the parents of any youngster who speaks on politics.... How long will we live in fear? Tell them, we are not scared," he said.
The CJP founder participated in the demonstration held under heavy security. He was later joined by climate activist Sonam Wangchuk. CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, CPI's Annie Raja and activists from Left student and youth organisations also participated in the protest.
"My friends, this is a long struggle. It has been a month since we started demanding Pradhan's resignation on social media, but these individuals are so shameless that instead of taking action, they have been focussed on other distractions, like hacking our accounts and getting our posts deleted. You may be able to delete our posts, but you cannot erase us from this space," Dipke said during his address to the crowd, which energetically supported his words.
Recalling his arrival at the Indira Gandhi International Airport earlier in the morning, Dipke said just before his plane was about to land, he felt as though he was living his last moments of freedom. "I was fully prepared to sacrifice my freedom for this cause," he said.
The CJP founder claimed that many people have compromised themselves and "sold out" due to the fear of imprisonment. "Lekin is desh ka chatra, yuva nahi bika hai (The youth and students of this country have not sold themselves)," he said amid loud cheers from the crowd.
According to the CJP, the number of protesters at the event ran in thousands.
In a statement, the CJP said the turnout "exceeded all expectations" and called the protest "a result of high public frustration and a lack of outlet to register it".
It added that it remains committed to a "peaceful, democratic struggle and to building a pro-youth, pro-education, pro-Constitution and pro-India movement that raises the voices of students and young people across the nation".
School students were also seen attending the protest along with their parents.
While people of all age groups came, majority of the participants were a mix of college students and young professionals.
Wangchuk said he was impressed with the youngsters and their peaceful protest. He also appreciated the fact that the government allowed the protest to be held.
"I hope that even in the future, it will allow such creative expressions," he said.
Wangchuk thanked Dipke, calling him the "cockroach-in-chief", and told the protesters, "You did not keep sitting at home crying nor are you creating any ruckus on the road."
Protesters also carried copies of the Constitution and the Indian flag, while some brought flowers.
The protest ended around 3:30 pm after Dipke started feeling unwell.
At the press conference, CJP spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka said, "We are giving the government seven days. Either Dharmendra Pradhan should resign respectfully or Prime Minister Narendra Modi should sack him. If his resignation does not come within seven days, this movement will spread throughout the country."
"The time has come to reset our education system and we have started that reset today," Ranka said, asserting that the demand for Pradhan's resignation is the immediate focus of the movement.
The protest was organised by the CJP, a youth-led online movement demanding accountability for alleged irregularities in examinations and recruitment tests, including the NEET, CBSE, CUET and SSC examinations.
Security was heightened across the national capital in anticipation of the protest. Police officials said additional personnel were deployed at the airport, border-entry points and other sensitive locations.
More than 1,000 police personnel were deployed throughout New Delhi and other strategic locations as a precaution.
Six people were detained by the Delhi Police to prevent a possible confrontation between two groups during the CJP's protest at Jantar Mantar, the officials said.
The detentions were made as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order after police received inputs about the possibility of tensions between supporters and opposers of the online movement.
Amid certain social media posts and news reports claiming that an FIR has been registered against protesters at Jantar Mantar, the Delhi Police clarified that no such case has been lodged. In a statement, police urged citizens not to believe or circulate unverified information and advised them to rely only on official updates issued by the force.
In the run-up to the protest, the CJP had circulated guidelines urging participants to maintain a non-violent conduct and avoid confrontation.
Dipke's latest appeal reiterated those instructions, emphasising a respectful engagement with law-enforcement personnel during the demonstration.
New Delhi | The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which organised a protest led by its founder Abhijeet Dipke at the Jantar Mantar here on Saturday demanding Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's removal, warned that the agitation would expand across the country if he is not sacked or does not resign voluntarily.
Addressing a press conference, CJP spokespersons Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das said the protest had drawn participants from several states and marked the beginning of a broader youth movement centred on education and governance issues.
Birthed as an online campaign in May, the CJP, which garnered over 22 million followers on Instagram, had exhorted youths to take part in the protest in the national capital over the issue of alleged irregularities in examinations and recruitment tests, in an apparent show of strength.
"We are giving the government seven days. Either Dharmendra Pradhan should resign respectfully, or Prime Minister Narendra Modi should sack him. If his resignation does not come within seven days, this movement will spread throughout the country," Ranka said.
He said the organisers were receiving messages from supporters in different states expressing readiness to hold peaceful demonstrations, and claimed the group would wait for a week before announcing its next course of action.
Describing the turnout on Saturday as a significant moment, Ranka said the protest demonstrated that young people were willing to mobilise around issues affecting them.
"June 6, 2026, will be written in history because today the politics of this country has completely changed," he said, adding that many young people who were often discouraged from taking to the streets had come together for a peaceful demonstration.
The organisers repeatedly projected the protest as a youth-led campaign and sought to frame it as a response to concerns surrounding the education system.
"The time has come to reset our education system, and we have started that reset today," Ranka said, asserting that the demand for Pradhan's resignation was the immediate focus of the movement.
According to him, removing the education minister was necessary if meaningful reforms were to be undertaken.
"Until this education minister is there, we will not be able to improve the education system of this country," he said.
While maintaining that the resignation demand remained the top priority, Ranka indicated that the campaign would continue beyond that issue.
"This is just the beginning. There are so many problems of the youth of this country," he said, arguing that concerns relating to education had not received adequate attention.
Asked whether the mobilisation should be viewed as a protest, a movement or a political platform, Ranka described it as "a platform for the youth", "a collective for the youth" and "a movement for the youth", while leaving open how it may evolve in the future.
The organisers also rejected suggestions that the mobilisation was linked to any established political formation and described themselves as "pro-youth, pro-education, pro-Constitution and pro-India".
Ranka claimed the turnout had exceeded expectations and emphasised that the gathering remained peaceful despite the crowds.
"It was such a huge crowd, and yet it remained a very, very peaceful protest. Maybe one of the most peaceful protests the country has seen in a while," he said.
"The Gen Z and the youth of this country have Gandhi and Ambedkar in their blood," he added, thanking participants who had travelled from different parts of the country to attend the event.
Saurav Das said people from several states, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and those in the Northeast, had joined the protest.
He also referred to online support for the campaign, claiming that hundreds of thousands of people had signed petitions seeking the minister's resignation.
Asked if they would send any representation to Pradhan or request a meeting, Ranka said, "Why doesn't he just resign."
Das said several other student groups have written to the minister over the issue but have not received any response.
"The youth wants to talk, but when the government is not talking, that is when they are getting on the road," Das said.
He also thanked Delhi Police for facilitating the demonstration and said maintaining peace had been a priority for the organisers.
"We are very happy that the Delhi Police's priority was peaceful demonstration," he said.
The protest was called by Dipke, who started the online satirical account of the Cockroach Janta Party, also called 'CJP', amid demands for accountability over recent developments in the education sector.
Earlier in the day, Dipke had urged Pradhan to step down by 5 pm, with organisers later announcing the seven-day deadline for action by the minister or the government.
New Delhi | On a day when hundreds gathered at Jantar Mantar here responding to the Cockroach Janta Party's (CJP) call, the Opposition stood vertically split into two camps -- a sceptical Congress on one side, while the rest of the parties cheered on from the sidelines.
While a section of the Congress trashed the CJP protest, calling it "performative" and a "brainchild of the AAP", the party's official line was more focussed on underlining that its youth and student wings have done more in fighting for the rights of the students affected by paper leaks and creaky digital infrastructure.
In stark contrast, the rest of the Opposition -- not just the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), with whom CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke was associated in the past -- threw its weight behind the CJP's campaign. Many prominent faces from the Left even landed up at Jantar Mantar.
Seen from that lens, the CJP's first ground-level campaign also laid bare, yet again, the cracks in the Opposition ranks, widening by the day ahead of the nearly-defunct INDIA bloc's huddle on June 8 in New Delhi -- its first after the DMK's exit from the coalition following its defeat in the Tamil Nadu Assembly polls and the Congress's decision to tie up with the ruling TVK in the southern state.
On Saturday, apart from the AAP, the CJP's protest received support from the Samajwadi Party (SP), Trinamool Congress (TMC), Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Left parties, among others.
"The cockroach movement is an expression of the huge anger and frustration experienced by the youth of this country. Rather than terming them anti-national, Modi govt should address their issues. AAP supports their demands. The Prime Minister must sack the education minister immediately," AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said in a post on X.
Dipke was a key member of the core team of the AAP's social media unit before he went to the United States to pursue higher education. He played a pivotal role in steering the AAP's social-media campaign during the 2020 Delhi Assembly polls that the party won by a landslide, defeating the BJP.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav also voiced his support for the CJP-led protest, writing on X: "These voices must reach the 'arrogant rulers', now that the youth too have sparked a revolution," while attaching a news clip carrying anti-government voices from the gathering.
In a statement, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray called the CJP protesters "the destiny-makers and future of the country".
"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 -- this is the warning given by the agitation at Jantar Mantar," Thackeray said.
Incidentally, Dipke hails from Maharashtra.
TMC MP Mahua Moitra also lauded Dipke. "Cockroaches survive even a nuclear holocaust -- don't take them lightly. Onwards and upwards," she said in a post on X.
The Congress, meanwhile, struck a discordant note, with a large section of the party apprehensive that the AAP is holding the strings of the CJP. The Congress's blow-hot, blow-cold relationship with the AAP traces its origins to the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement led by Kejriwal and Anna Hazare that shook the foundations of the UPA-2 government.
In a long post on X, Supriya Shrinate, chairperson of the Congress's social media and digital platforms, listed the protests led by the party's youth frontal organisations, the National Students' Union of India (NSUI) and the Indian Youth Congress (IYC), across states over the last month against the NEET paper "leak" and the CBSE marking row.
"They have braved scorching 47°C heat, they have faced water cannons, they have been beaten mercilessly, they have been lathicharged, they have been arrested and detained. Yet, did you see this on prime-time news? Did you see the courage, the sweat, the blood and the resolve of these young Indians?
"No. You did not. And that itself tells you everything about whose voices the system wants to amplify and whose it wants to suppress," Shrinate said.
Many other Congress leaders were more direct. For instance, Srivatsa, a member of Rahul Gandhi's core team, called the CJP-led protest a "flop" and "performative".
"Kejriwal today again proved that he is better at mobilising journalists and YouTubers than people. There are twice as many media personnel at Jantar Mantar as there are 'protesters' at this flop protest," he said in a post on X.
Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Nabin, addressing a meeting in Ranchi, took a veiled swipe at Dipke, saying "some people sitting abroad think they will give direction to India's youngsters".
"India's youngsters live in the village square with the farmer, live in coaching institutes, live on college campuses. But India's youngsters are not going to move forward by becoming a puppet in the fist of a few people sitting in Delhi," he said.
Mau (UP) | A doctor working at a community health centre in the Mau district was allegedly assaulted by a man after he allegedly refused to join the Cockroach Janta Party, police said on Saturday.
The incident took place on Friday at the community health centre in Majhwara Mod.
Police said Rahul Yadav, who claimed to be a member of the Cockroach Janta Party, visited the centre for an ECG examination and later allegedly urged Dr Harishchandra Jaiswal to join the party.
When the doctor declined, citing restrictions on government employees participating in political activities, an argument ensued, they said.
The accused allegedly assaulted the doctor, damaged property inside his chamber and threatened him before fleeing, police said.
Additional Superintendent of Police Anoop Kumar said a complaint has been registered, and efforts are underway to arrest the accused.