It began as a satirical jibe on social media — a mock political party embracing the cockroach as a symbol of defiance. Six weeks later, India's education minister has resigned, handing a spectacular victory to the youth-led movement that calls itself the "voice of the lazy and unemployed".
On Saturday, Dharmendra Pradhan stepped down after weeks of student protests that culminated in a march on parliament, met with tear gas and baton charges. The unrest was fuelled by two events: a massive medical entrance exam scandal and a Supreme Court judge comparing unemployed young people to cockroaches.
“India's education minister resigns after youth protests sparked by exam scandal and judge's 'cockroach' remark.”
Nearly 2.27 million aspiring doctors faced uncertainty in May 2026 after allegations of a question paper leak forced authorities to cancel the NEET exam and order a nationwide re-test. The Indian Air Force was drafted for an unusual operation — airlifting sealed question papers to 18 hubs across the country in nearly 200 flights.
"I spent the past two years preparing for NEET only to be told that the original test results would be scrapped," said Nikhil Pai, a 21-year-old student from Delhi. "After preparing for two years, I was mentally exhausted and simply did not have the emotional bandwidth to go through the examination again."
The next day, on 15 May, Chief Justice Surya Kant told a Supreme Court hearing that there were "youngsters like cockroaches" who, unable to find employment or a place in the profession, turned to attacking institutions. He later clarified he meant people with fake degrees, but the damage was done.
Thirty-year-old PR graduate Abhijeet Dipke posted on X: "What if all cockroaches come together?" The post included a Google form inviting users to join "a new platform for all the cockroaches". Within 24 hours, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) had a website, a manifesto, and membership guidelines — parodying the name of Narendra Modi's ruling BJP.
By Saturday, the CJP had amassed nearly 20.5 million followers on Instagram and over 300,000 on X — the latter temporarily blocked in India after a legal demand from the government.
"Those in power think citizens are cockroaches and parasites," Dipke told Al Jazeera. "They should know that cockroaches breed in rotten places. That's what India is today."
With unemployment among 15-to-29-year-olds at 9.9 per cent nationally and 13.6 per cent in urban areas, the movement appears to have tapped a deep reservoir of anger. Pradhan's resignation is its first major scalp — but with a national march violently dispersed, the question is what comes next.