They demand the resignation of the Minister of Education
New Delhi.- Hundreds of supporters of the Cockroach People’s Party (CJP), an Indian youth movement that began as a satire on social media, held their first protest this Saturday in New Delhi following the return to the country of their leader, Abhijeet Dipke.
Wearing cockroach masks and holding copies of the Indian Constitution, protesters demanded the resignation of Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, following a series of leaks, technical errors, and cancellations in various official exams that have caused outrage among Indian youth.
“Exam answers are being sold before the exam takes place. They can cost 10 lakhs (about 10,500 dollars). People who buy the answers come out victorious; while others who cannot afford them cannot move forward,” declared Aditi Mishra, president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University students’ union, to EFE during the demonstration.
15.3% youth unemployment in India
The concern over these official tests, often decisive in a country suffering from 15.3% youth unemployment, was what pushed many young people to join the CJP demonstration on Saturday.
Navya Dubey, 18, explained to EFE that some of her friends had suicidal thoughts after the leak of the answers to the NEET exam, a demanding admission test for medicine and dentistry programs, in May. The government canceled the exam after more than 2 million applicants had taken the test.
The protest, carried out on a side street and cordoned off by the police, took place without incident and amidst heat that reached 40 degrees.
The founder of the movement, Abhijeet Dipke, assured that the protests will continue until the Minister of Education resigns.
“This was just a trailer,” indicated the political communication strategist, who lives in the U.S. and is a student at Boston University.
The origin of cockroaches
The CJP was born on May 16th after the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India, Surya Kant, compared some unemployed young people to “cockroaches” and “parasites”.
More Read
The statements caused a stir in a country where more than half of its 1.4 billion inhabitants are under 30 years old. In a matter of days, the movement surpassed 22 million followers on Instagram, more than doubling those of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Shortly after, the CJP’s X account was withheld “in response to a legal demand.” The local media outlet The Indian Express reported that the blocking request came from the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
After receiving support from several personalities and some politicians, Dipke announced that he would return to the country despite fearing arrest.
“It’s time to turn this little joke into a revolution,” the party posted on social media on Friday.
