India's Gen Z 'Cockroach Party' Forced a Minister's Resignation

Students across India forced the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on July 25, 2026, after weeks of protests over leaked entrance exam papers. The movement, which calls itself the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), started with a single Instagram post in May and grew into a national force that extracted a concession from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling BJP that analysts said was unprecedented.

The trigger was an offhand remark by India's Supreme Court Chief Justice Surya Kant, who in May called unemployed Indian youth "parasites and cockroaches." Abhijeet Dipke, a 24-year-old Boston University graduate working in public relations in Massachusetts, saw the clip and posted a question on X: "What if all the cockroaches come together?"

Within days, Dipke's Instagram account under the banner Cockroach Janta Party ("Janta" is Hindi for "the people") attracted millions of followers. The anger was real. An estimated 2 million students compete annually for 130,000 medical school seats through the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). When news spread that exam questions had been leaked through an underground trade, an estimated 21 students killed themselves rather than retake the test.

"It's one of the most competitive exams in India," said Ahilya Majithia, a reporter based in New Delhi who documented the protests. "People study for years to give this exam."

Dipke flew from Boston to Delhi in early June, arriving at the airport holding a copy of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's autobiography. Ambedkar, a Dalit leader whose writings anchor the anti-caste movement, was a left-wing socialist. Dipke told Frontline magazine that coming from a Dalit family, Ambedkar had a "huge influence" on his life.