Shafaqna Pakistan: Leaders of India’s youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) entered their second week of sit-in protests on Tuesday, bolstered by the support of a prominent activist who has begun a hunger strike to press for the resignation of the country’s education minister.
The demonstrations in New Delhi come amid reports that the government is considering a cabinet reshuffle, with Indian media suggesting that Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan could be reassigned to a different portfolio.
The CJP, which amassed 22 million followers on Instagram within days of its launch last month, is calling for Pradhan’s resignation over the alleged leak of question papers for the national medical college entrance examination.
Pradhan, the education ministry and the government’s chief spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Around 100 CJP supporters have been gathering each day at the protest site in central Delhi.
“With each passing day, more people are coming here from different parts of India,” said 30-year-old party founder Abhijeet Dipke as he and social activist Sonam Wanchuk sat on a makeshift stage beneath a banner calling for Pradhan’s removal.
“We are waiting to see what the government decides because there are reports of a cabinet reshuffle. Once that announcement comes, we will decide the next course of action.”
Wangchuk is a prominent critic of the government who was arrested last year after violent protests demanding statehood for his native Himalayan federal territory of Ladakh.
‘Six weeks of hunger strike or death’
Wangchuk said he would undertake a fast that would last six weeks unless he died first.
“But hopefully, we don’t have to go that far,” he said, lying on a mattress. “A sensitive government in a democracy listens to the pains of the people, and I hope they will take action.”
CJP describes itself as representing “the lazy, the unemployed, and the chronically correct”. Its rapid online rise reflects frustrations among young Indians, who are estimated to make up more than half the country’s 1.42 billion population.
India’s unemployment rate was 3.1% in 2025 for people aged 15 and above, government data showed, but nearly 10% among those aged 15 to 29, rising to 13.6% in urban areas.
Young people have also been angered by the question paper leaks, which led to the cancellation of the medical college examination taken by 2.3 million aspirants. It was held for a second time this month after the government deployed military aircraft to transport exam papers and temporarily blocked the Telegram online messaging platform, where it said the leak was spread.
The CJP has drawn criticism from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with party president Nitin Nabin saying this week that “these virus and cockroach parties can hollow out the country”.
“Such people are part of an anti-India gang and only BJP workers can teach them a lesson,” he said in a speech.
Source: Express Tribune
