The Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) held its second major protest in Pune on Thursday, drawing approximately 1,000 participants to the Savitribai Phule Pune University campus, where founder Abhijeet Dipke unveiled a formal set of demands directed at the Union government over systemic failures in India's public examination system.
The protest added to growing momentum behind a movement that began less than a month ago as a satirical response to a remark by the Chief Justice of India comparing unemployed youth to "cockroaches" — and has since evolved into an organised youth agitation with a national campaign underway.
What are the Five Demands?
Beyond its central demand for the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the CJP presented the following at Thursday's protest:
Compensation for Exam Disruption and Delays: Financial compensation of ₹10,000 per candidate whenever an examination is cancelled, leaked, or disrupted, to cover travel, accommodation, and preparation costs incurred by students. An additional ₹10,000 per month was demanded for every month results are delayed beyond 30 days.
Mandatory Backup Exams: A mandatory backup examination to be conducted within 72 hours of any cancellation, leak, or disruption, with authorities required to have contingency plans in place before every major exam.
Physical Evaluation Over Digital Answer Scanning: Physical, paper-based evaluation of answer sheets for written examinations, in place of digital scanning-based assessment, until reliable technological infrastructure is uniformly available across the country.
Automatic Age-Limit Extension for Affected Candidates: Automatic age-limit extensions for candidates affected by examination delays or cancellations, with the duration of the delay to be added directly to the upper age limit so no student loses eligibility due to administrative failures.
Pre-Exam Third-Party Audits of Online Test Centres: Mandatory third-party audits of computer-based examination centres at least seven days before any online test, with centres that fail the audit to be replaced immediately.
Climate Activist Sonam Wangchuk, who led the protest alongside dipke, said: "The government must take accountability for their mistakes for which students are paying the cost." Social activist Aseem Sarode and several others also extended support, with crowds raising slogans including 'Zimmedari leni hogi' and 'I am cockroach.'
Addressing the gathering, Dipke said the government's unwillingness to acknowledge mistakes was itself the core problem. "If they are not ready for a simple resignation and to admit the mistake, then how can we expect them to fix the education system. It starts with admitting a mistake," he said. Referring to the BJP-led Union government's response to student protests, he asked: "Who is more important, a student or a Minister? If you don't leave him, students will get you transferred. People are no longer tolerant."
Nationwide Campaign and Indefinite Protest
Dipke announced that protests are planned across Lucknow, Amritsar, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Jaipur, and Delhi between June 12 and June 20. He confirmed he would begin an indefinite protest in Delhi on June 20, appealing to students across the country to join.
On the pace of the movement, he said: "It has been just 15 days, give us time to decide on the course of action. If you have given 12 years of time to people in power, give us at least 12 weeks."