The Cockroach Janta Party organised its second protest in Delhi at Jantar Mantar on Saturday, to demand the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged mismanagement in the conduct of competitive exams.

During the protest, Ladakh activist Sonam Wangchuk said he would launch an indefinite hunger strike if the government does not take responsibility for alleged irregularities in the education system by June 27.

Hundreds of protesters who had gathered at the site shouted “Go Pradhan Go” while banging plates and spoons. Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the Cockroach Janta Party, said that doing so would help remove the “virus in the education system named Dharmendra Pradhan” from office.

Dipke’s remarks were an apparent dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s March 2020 appeal asking Indians to clap and bang utensils from their homes to express gratitude to healthcare workers and others involved in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. While the government did not claim that the exercise would eliminate the coronavirus, misinformation and rumours were shared on social media suggesting that the act could help destroy the virus.

Dipke said that the protest will continue until the education minister steps down.

The protest took place a day before the re-examination for the undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for medical college admissions, which was ordered following allegations of a paper leak.

Students and job seekers have also alleged irregularities in the Class 12 examinations conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education and government recruitment examinations conducted by the Staff Selection Commission.

The Cockroach Janta Party – which started as a satirical political campaign – held its first protest at Jantar Mantar on June 6, followed by demonstrations in several cities demanding the resignation of Pradhan.

The Cockroach Janta Party was launched on May 16 in response to reports of remarks by Chief Justice Surya Kant on the previous day comparing some unemployed youngsters to “cockroaches”. Since then, the campaign has garnered more than 22 million followers on Instagram.

The chief justice claimed on May 16 that he had been misquoted by sections of the media and that it was baseless to say that he criticised young people in general. Kant claimed he had specifically criticised “those who have entered professions like the Bar [legal profession] with the aid of fake and bogus degrees”.

Written by Tanya Shrivastava. Inputs from Anant Gupta. Edited by Sara Varghese.

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