It began with a Supreme Court judge likening unemployed young Indians to “cockroaches” and a leaked medical school entrance exam. Now the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has brought tens of thousands to Delhi’s streets, and on Tuesday the main opposition Congress party joined them — only for its leader Rahul Gandhi to be dragged into a police bus and detained.
The protests have been building since Monday, when the CJP called for a march to parliament on the opening day of the monsoon session. Police responded with batons and tear gas, injuring at least 60 people. Officers dismantled the stage and makeshift tents at Jantar Mantar, the movement’s base near the 300-year-old observatory. But demonstrators refused to leave, maintaining a round-the-clock sit-in despite heavy rains overnight.
“Rahul Gandhi detained as 'cockroach' protests, sparked by exam leak and judge's remark, intensify in Delhi.”
On Tuesday, the protests escalated further. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi led a surprise march to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s house, demanding the resignations of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Home Minister Amit Shah — to whom the Delhi police report — and Modi himself. Videos shared by Congress showed Gandhi and others being dragged into buses and taken to detention centres; they were later released.
Gandhi said the government must apologise to students for the crackdown. He told reporters that he had met speaker Om Birla to seek a parliamentary discussion, but “the speaker said he needed to take permission from the government, but it was very clear to us that there was no interest in the government of having a debate”.
Federal Minister Jitendra Singh denied Gandhi’s allegation, saying the government had accepted his demand for a discussion but that Gandhi later also demanded Pradhan’s resignation. Singh accused Gandhi of “changing the goalpost” and of refusing to end the protest despite being told that the location was not suitable.
The CJP, which began as an online joke, is demanding education reforms and Pradhan’s resignation. It received a boost on Tuesday when senior opposition leaders such as former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and veteran politician Sharad Pawar visited the sit-in. The protests show no sign of abating, piling pressure on a government that has so far refused to yield to the young demonstrators it once dismissed.