NEW DELHI — On a recent humid afternoon, the open-air student protest camp at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar slowly stirred awake, as demonstrators rolled up rain-soaked bedding after another night sleeping under the open sky. At the center of the gathering, inside a simple canvas tent, 59-year-old activist Sonam Wangchuk rests, his gaunt frame bearing the physical toll of three weeks on a continuous hunger strike. For Wangchuk, this deliberate act of peaceful civil disobedience is the only acceptable alternative to violent public unrest.
“If not fasting, what? Riots in the streets? That’s what we don’t want to do. So this is a peaceful way to take your voice to the government,” Wangchuk explained to reporters, as a steady stream of worried supporters stopped by to check his condition.
What started as a spontaneous online backlash against an offhand judicial comment has grown into a grass-roots movement that is testing the Modi government’s willingness to engage with public dissent from young Indian voters. The unlikely face of this youth-driven mobilization is Wangchuk, a well-known climate activist who has lent his high-profile credibility to the Cockroach Janta Party, the movement that emerged two months ago and rapidly gained traction following widespread allegations of college entrance exam leaks on social media.
The movement’s origins trace back to May, when Supreme Court Chief Justice Surya Kant compared unemployed young Indians to “cockroaches” during a unrelated court hearing. Rather than rejecting the insult, movement supporters reclaimed the label as a badge of collective resilience, turning the name into a satirical political brand that amassed more than 21 million Instagram followers in just 48 hours. What began as online outrage quickly translated to on-the-ground action, with the first major mass rally held in New Delhi in early June. Today, thousands of supporters have joined protests at universities and public squares across multiple Indian cities.
The movement’s core demands are clear: the immediate resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the ongoing exam leak controversy, sweeping systemic reforms to India’s competitive entrance exam system, and financial compensation for the families of students who died by suicide linked to exam stress or leak-related disruptions. For millions of young Indians, access to government jobs and elite medical college spots hinges entirely on performance in these high-stakes entrance exams, making the integrity of the testing system a matter of life-altering importance.
Unlike established national political parties, the Cockroach Janta Party has no formal hierarchical structure, and all supporters cover their own travel and accommodation costs to join the New Delhi camp, which is located at Jantar Mantar, India’s long-designated public space for peaceful protest. Local police have not moved to shut down the demonstration, which has drawn support from a broad cross-section of Indian society beyond current students. Thirty-three-year-old IT professional Ajay Zingade is one of many non-student supporters who joined the camp, driven to action by repeated cycles of exam paper leaks that have eroded public trust in India’s institutional systems.
“I am just exercising my fundamental right of dissent,” Zingade said.
In recent weeks, the protest has gained growing high-profile support, with opposition political leaders across multiple parties and several Bollywood celebrities visiting the camp or publicly endorsing the movement’s demands. Still, on-the-ground turnout in New Delhi has remained modest compared to the movement’s massive online following: most days draw a few hundred demonstrators for the ongoing sit-in, with evening crowds swelling to roughly 1,000. Many participants have endured weeks of heavy monsoon rain, living in basic tent accommodation throughout their protest.
Protest organizers say the movement has expanded beyond exam reform to become a broader call for institutional accountability, as young Indians have lost trust in key national bodies including the judiciary, political establishment, and mainstream media. “The system needs a complete overhaul because the current system is no longer accountable or even taking basic responsibility,” said Abhijeet Dipke, a Boston University student and founder of the Cockroach Janta Party.
To date, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has not acknowledged the movement’s demands nor opened any negotiations with organizers. The national education ministry did not respond to requests for comment from the Associated Press. Senior government leaders have largely dismissed the protest, with Pradhan accusing movement members of working against national interests, while other officials have argued that while students’ concerns merit review, there is no reason for the government to enter formal talks with the group.
This government silence has only hardened protesters’ resolve, organizers say, as Wangchuk’s hunger strike enters its third week. “In a democracy the government is supposed to listen to the people, to have a dialogue with the people, and more importantly to be answerable to the people. I don’t know why the government isn’t doing that,” Dipke said.
For Wangchuk, the hunger strike is intended to channel widespread public anger over institutional failure into a disciplined, peaceful act of civil disobedience that aligns with India’s long history of nonviolent protest. “It’s to demand accountability, which is important in any government,” he said.
Organizers are now preparing to escalate their campaign with a planned march to India’s Parliament building next Monday, an action designed to deliver their demands directly to sitting lawmakers. Wangchuk says he hopes the government will choose to engage with the movement’s peaceful tactics rather than force protesters to adopt more confrontational methods.
“We hope that government is sensible enough to reward peaceful ways rather than wait for not-so-peaceful ways,” he said.
Dipke added that the movement is prepared to sustain its protest for as long as necessary, pushing back against government assumptions that the youth-led campaign would quickly fade. “The government was thinking that maybe if they ignore us: These are kids, they will go back home. But I think we have proved that we are here for the long battle, and we are not going to go back home,” he said.