The Indian Air Force was recently drafted to execute one of the country’s most unusual operations. It was neither a military mission nor a national security exercise, but a medical school entrance examination. Nearly 200 flights were deployed to airlift question papers to 18 designated hubs across India ahead of the re-test of the fiercely competitive NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) on 21 June.
The operation took place in the wake of one of India’s biggest scandals in recent years. In May 2026, the careers of almost 2.27 million aspiring doctors were upended by allegations surrounding a question paper leak, forcing authorities to cancel the already conducted examination and order a nationwide re-test.
“India's youth movement, sparked by a leaked exam and a judge's 'cockroach' remark, draws Air Force deployment and opposition support.”
“I spent the past two years preparing for NEET only to be told that the original test results would be scrapped. The student outrage is only a natural outcome,” said Nikhil Pai, a 21-year-old student from Delhi. He was relieved after taking the test, hopeful of a good score, but the ordeal gave him crippling anxiety. “After preparing for two years, I was mentally exhausted and simply did not have the emotional bandwidth to go through the examination again.”
But what happened next was even more unexpected. This rage caught and spread, resulting in nationwide protests and one of the largest youth political movements in India. At its helm stands a unique mascot – a cockroach.
The movement started just days after the NEET scandal began to break. Investigations revealed significant overlaps between a pre-circulated guess paper and the actual question paper, and several people associated with the autonomous body responsible for setting the question paper were arrested, leaving millions of students in limbo.
Then, on 15 May 2026, the Chief Justice of India, during a Supreme Court hearing, likened young Indians to “cockroaches”, implying their careers lacked purpose and direction. Thirty-year-old communication professional Abhijeet Dipke voiced his outrage online. He posted on X: “What if all the cockroaches came together?” What was intended as a jibe at the government resonated with millions. Thus a political symbol was born. The Cockroach Janta Party’s website went live within 24 hours.
The main opposition Congress party has now joined the protests – and its leader Rahul Gandhi was among those detained yesterday.
It began as an online joke, but now young Indians calling themselves ‘cockroaches’ are presenting a serious challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. The satirical movement has positioned itself as the voice of a generation furious at a system that failed them.