Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel fired tear gas shells to disperse the supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) during a protest demanding the resignation of India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan due to allegations of not interfering with the NEET exams in New Delhi on July 20, 2026. to force the education minister to resign for not following the guidelines of the major exams. (Photo by Arun SANKAR / AFP via Getty Images)
Arun Sankar | Afp | Getty Images
Thousands of Gen Z protesters, led by the Cockroach Janta Party, or CJP, a fake political outfit, continued to gather in New Delhi on Wednesday as authorities cracked down on the movement.
India has one of the world’s largest youth populations, and the protests are the result of Gen Z anger over youth unemployment and lack of economic mobility, experts say.
“Continued protests could represent the biggest public challenge to the government since mobilizing farmers in 2020-2021,” said Atman Trivedi, a partner at DGA Albright Stonebridge Group, in Washington, told CNBC.
The CJP started as an “online political victim” but has now become a “deep protest movement of the real world,” Trivedi added.
The student protest began on June 6, demanding the resignation of India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, accusing him of leaking exam papers that took place in May. It received the support of Sonam Wangchuk, an activist and teacher, who has been on hunger strike for 25 days and is receiving medical assistance.
Protests escalated this week after students on Monday broke barriers around the protest site as they marched towards parliament and were teargassed and beaten by Delhi police. Police said more than 100 were injured in “violent protests.”
It appears that the police used violent means to “cause more damage” than to disperse the crowd, Lavanya Singh, who was present at the protest on July 20, told CNBC. The 26-year-old returned to the protest on Wednesday and plans to attend “every day.”
“I [exam paper] leak, is an example of how often this government has failed,” said Singh, adding that a mixture of “feelings of betrayal, anger, and helplessness” are driving the protesters. The CJP is “not perfect” but is trying to bring justice and is listening to the youth of our nation, said Singh.
India’s Ministry of Home Affairs did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Rising pressure
The CJP was launched on May 16 by political communications strategist and Boston University student Abhijeet Dipke, after Chief Justice of India Surya Kant called people who attack institutions “parasites” and likened some unemployed youth and activists to “cockroaches” during a court hearing. The CJI later said that his oral observations were “misquoted.”
CJP has since gone viral on social media and amassed over 22 million followers, but the account was taken down on Wednesday, when Dipke blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on X’s post.
Modi’s political rivals are also increasing pressure for the government to respond to the demands of the students and demand action against those who harass the protesters.
Rahul Gandhi, the leader of India’s opposition, who was briefly jailed on Tuesday for holding a protest in front of the prime minister’s house in collaboration with students, said there have been about 152 exam paper leaks in the past 10 years, affecting more than 75 million students.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party said the government would investigate the allegations by Gandhi, who said “India’s education system is rigged” at a press conference on Wednesday.
In May, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, a key test for admission to medical colleges, was canceled due to an alleged paper leak, affecting millions of students. The re-examination was conducted in June.
The country’s Minister of Education, in the space of X on Wednesday, said that “the government is still 100% willing to discuss” the issue of the leak of the examination paper and “to address all the concerns of our youth on the floor of the House.”
Indian students deserve better than to be “treated as props in a political campaign,” and they “deserve to be convinced of chaos, solutions to slogans and responsibility for disruption.”
Are you spreading trouble?
The CJP said protests have spread to many Indian cities, saying “the nation has woken up.”
Angad Chabra, a 17-year-old student protesting at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bengaluru, who will begin his engineering degree, said the students’ frustration was “too high to be silent” and that the CJP had provided a platform for youth to come together.
NEW DELHI, INDIA – JULY 20: Large crowds of protesters march towards Parliament from Jantar Mantar on July 20, 2026 in New Delhi, India. Protesters were seen pushing through police barricades and scuffling with security guards as authorities tried to stop the march.
Hindustan Times | Hindustan Times | Getty Images
India is ranked as the “most vulnerable country” in Verisk Maplecroft’s Civil Unrest Index, a global risk analysis firm. Complaints are growing in size, and participation rates in protests have more than doubled over the past year, and unrest has now spread across the country, Reema Bhattacharya, head of Asia research at Verisk Maplecroft, said in a statement on Wednesday.
“After ten years in office, the poor employment results are increasingly difficult to attribute to legacy factors alone, including the strong anti-incumbency narrative evident in his 12 years in office, ahead of the 2029 election,” he added.
The CJP’s protest also strengthened support from regional political parties and even farmers’ groups. Prominent farmer union leader Rakesh Tikait has pledged to support the students’ protest.
The CJP acts as a lightning rod for almost anyone with a grievance against the government, Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, head of South Asia practice at Eurasia Group, told CNBC, but warned that this makes the move “chaotic.”
