02.08.2026, India.
The scandal surrounding the NEET-UG medical exam triggered massive youth protests in India, forcing the government to accept an ultimatum from the “Cockroach Party”. At the end of May, a major scandal erupted in India over a leak of questions for the NEET-UG medical exam. The authorities were so concerned that they cancelled the exam results and scheduled a re-exam for late June. It seemed that the incident was over, but this case had such great public resonance that it led to ten-thousand-strong protests in Delhi, clashes with police, and an ultimatum from the protesters that the authorities were forced to fulfill.
The exam
About 2.28 million applicants took the NEET-UG exam in India on May 3. However, after the exam, information appeared on social media and in the press that in some exam centers, applicants already knew the future tasks, and some examinees were initially in a more advantageous position than others. The scandal developed quite rapidly, and already at the end of May, the authorities announced that a re-examination would be organized. The Education Minister acknowledged the problem and stated that the authorities would do everything to ensure that the repeated testing “would be 100% error-free.”
Indeed, there were no reports in the media of any large-scale problems during the re-examination, but overall this did not calm the situation. It continued to heat up.
The severity of the problem can be felt by understanding that this exam is the only way for the less wealthy segments of the population to obtain affordable medical education, which is one of the few social elevators in India. The competition reaches 20-30 people per state-funded place. Schoolchildren literally prepare for years for this exam; the emotional tension is colossal, so the cancellation of exam results is a giant stress. Retaking is not an acceptable solution, as many are simply not ready to repeat such an ordeal. In several cases, this situation led to tragedies. The Hindustan Times analyzed police materials, family reports, and media publications and counted at least 11 suicides between the cancellation of NEET-UG and the re-examination that were at least indirectly related to the exam.
The “Cockroach Party“
The so-called “Cockroach Janta Party” (CJP) made a significant contribution to organizing and fueling the protests. This is not actually a political party in the usual sense, but a broad public youth movement.
It all started in May, when the Chairman of the Supreme Court of India, Surya Kant, sharply characterized a part of the unemployed youth who show political activism and engage in journalism. He compared these young people to cockroaches and parasites. Later, the judge clarified that he meant only people with fake diplomas, not all youth, but the scandal could no longer be stopped. In response to this statement, political consultant and Boston University graduate Abhijit Deepke created a satirical “Cockroach Janta Party” (CJP). The very name played on both the Supreme Court judge’s comparison and the ruling “Bharatiya Janata Party” (Indian People’s Party), which is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This movement quickly went viral on social media. Satirical requirements for movement members were formulated: to be unemployed, lazy, constantly stay on the internet, and professionally express discontent.
Under the cover of humor, serious social problems of India were actually exposed, such as narrow social elevators, high youth unemployment, and corruption, especially related to exams. The “party’s” account quickly gained more than 20 million followers on Instagram.
Movement participants turned the judge’s insults into a kind of symbol. They claim that cockroaches are creatures that are difficult to destroy; they can survive in the most unfavorable conditions. This became a kind of metaphor for the resilience of young Indians who are able to overcome big problems, including unemployment. From an initial internet meme and satire, the “Cockroach Party” gradually began to turn into a powerful social force in India.
The beginning of the protests
In June, the “cockroaches‘” internet campaign moved from the virtual space to the streets. On June 1, movement founder Deepke announced plans to hold a protest action where those gathered would demand the resignation of the Education Minister. On June 6, the first mass rally took place in New Delhi. Several hundred students gathered at Jantar Mantar — a traditional protest site in the Indian capital. They demanded the resignation of the Education Minister and a fight against corruption in exams. The protest quickly spread beyond Delhi. Already on June 11, a rally took place in Pune, India’s ninth-largest city, and then actions began to be held in other cities. Student organizations, mostly of a left-wing political orientation, began to join the action.
At the end of June, the CJP announced an indefinite sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar. The protesters set up a camp. In addition to demands for the minister’s resignation and a fight against corruption, demands for criminal prosecution of the organizers of exam leaks were added. On June 28, public activist Sonam Wangchuk joined the protests, beginning an indefinite hunger strike.
Peak of street activity
On July 18, the police took Wangchuk to the hospital at night. In response, CJP founder Deepke began a hunger strike, and movement representatives accused the authorities of trying to disrupt the protest and called for the largest action to be held.
The culmination of the protests was the march on the parliament on July 20. On this day, a new session of the Indian parliament opened; the CJP wanted to present its demands to the deputies at the moment they began their work.
The main demands were as follows:
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resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan;
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independent investigation into the exam leaks;
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reform of the National Testing Agency (NTA);
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criminal liability for the organizers of the leaks;
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guarantees of fair conduct of state exams.
There are no exact estimates of the number of march participants, but apparently it was about 10,000–20,000 protesters. The police blocked the road to parliament, the protesters began to rock and push police barricades, clashes broke out, the march was dispersed, and dozens of protesters were detained. According to official reports, more than a hundred police officers sought medical help, and a comparable number of protesters were also injured.
On the same day, synchronized protests took place in other Indian cities, and on July 23, CJP representatives stated that protests were already underway in 34 cities of the country. The protesters were actively supported by the parliamentary opposition in the form of the Indian National Congress, whose leaders were even briefly detained by the police during the march.
Reaction of the authorities
On July 24, the “party” leadership met with government representatives, to whom they presented their ultimatum: to dismiss the Education Minister, reform the exam system, and also drop charges against the protesters and pay compensation to the families of students whose deaths the movement linked to the exam crisis.
The “cockroaches” threatened that if their demands were not met, they would increase protest activity. According to CJP representatives, the government requested 24 hours to consider the minister’s resignation, while the remaining demands were generally accepted by the authorities.
On the same day, the government approved amendments to the law on preventing exam paper leaks, proposing to tighten punishments for persons involved in the leak of exam materials. According to sources, the proposed bill provides for a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and a fine of up to 100 million rupees (82 million rubles). The opposition criticized the law, stating that it focuses on punishment rather than prevention.
At the same time, the National Testing Agency began a large-scale internal reorganization, firing 47 employees and hiring new specialists in the fields of cybersecurity, digital forensics, and test center operations.
On July 25, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned voluntarily. The politician took moral responsibility for the scandal over the leak of NEET-UG exam materials.
He stated that from the first day of the scandal, he tried to do everything possible to ensure that no capable student suffered because of what he called the “exam mafia,” and that the unrest in New Delhi and across the country saddened him, so he was resigning to prevent the situation from being used by anti-national forces and to protect the unity of the country.
Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi tried to increase the effect and, after news of the minister’s resignation, called for the resignation of the government, but his demand was not supported by the protest organizers.
On July 28, the Supreme Court of India effectively placed law enforcement under temporary restrictions. It ordered that no coercive measures be applied in criminal cases against students who participated in the protests, that detained minors and persons without a criminal record be released, and that recordings of street surveillance cameras, drones, body cameras, and other materials related to police actions be preserved. However, the criminal cases themselves have not been closed; the police may continue their investigations.
It is worth noting that, as usually happens in such cases, in addition to legitimate outrage, the protests were also artificially fueled. In particular, the cyber police of Maharashtra state identified 429 accounts, including those created abroad, that were involved in spreading fakes during the “Cockroach Party” protest march.
The most notable case was a publication claiming that a student died during the protests at Jantar Mantar, and his mother was denied a criminal case. After verification, it turned out that the student was resuscitated after cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and the video with the mother’s statement was processed using artificial intelligence.
However, apparently, the artificial interference did not particularly affect the development of the protest; its basis was the mass of accumulated social grievances among young people against the Indian authorities.
Interim results
After the authorities essentially fulfilled all the protesters’ demands, the CJP suspended protest actions on July 25. However, on July 28, the “party” warned that it would resume the nationwide protest campaign if the government did not fulfill the agreements of July 25, primarily the closure of criminal cases filed against protest participants.
Apparently, the authorities managed to extinguish this protest outburst without significant consequences for themselves. However, if the promises of reform remain unfulfilled and the social problems of young people are not addressed, protests could easily flare up again. In this case, it will be much more difficult for the government to cope with them, as the trust credit will have already been exhausted.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
