Nineteen-year-old Dhammapal Gavai has spent the past year preparing for the Union Public Service Commission exams for jobs in the civil services and just started college in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. Yet, he and two fellow students travelled 250 km to the Savitribai Phule Pune University to attend the Cockroach Janta Party’s protest on the evening of June 11.“I may be preparing for UPSC, but these are students’ issues,” Gavai said. “I am a student so I am here to join them.”A satirical movement, the Cockroach Janta Party quickly grew in popularity online amid the back-to-back fiascos hurting students in recent months: first, the cancellation of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for admission to medical undergraduate courses after concerns that a paper had leaked and then the technical errors by the Central Board of Secondary Education in evaluating Class 12 board exam papers.Gavai said that young people feel like they have wasted their lives studying. Discussing the NEET paper leak, he said, students had been preparing to become doctors so that they could help cure people. “Instead, people stole the paper to pass,” said Gavai. “Then what is the future?”Dhammapal Gavai, 19, and his friend, who both travelled from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar to attend the protest in Pune. Jatin Waghmare, who works in Pune, was also attending the protest. Credit: Divya AsleshaThe Cockroach Janta Party held its first rally in Delhi on May 16. While it was clear that the movement reflected deep disenchantment with several national problems, it was not apparent what challenges the leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party would choose to focus on.At this second rally in Pune, founder Abhijeet Dipke released a five-point manifesto about education, detailing demands for changes in the examination system.“The manifesto focuses on preventing question paper leaks, ensuring timely declaration of examination results, improving transparency in recruitment and entrance examinations, strengthening accountability of examination authorities, and addressing issues faced by students due to delays and irregularities in the conduct of examinations,” he said at a press conference.The Cockroach Janta Party’s demand for Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation is the first step towards accountability for what many at the protest felt is the poor state of education in the country, many at the rally said.“A resignation is needed,” said Jatin Waghmare, who graduated more than 12 years ago and now works at a bank in Pune. “Students are dying by suicide. Paper leaks are happening. Instead of taking action, the government is calling everyone ‘Pakistani’.”Waghmare added: “It’s very wrong and demotivating. It’s very ugly. That is why we have come to support the Cockroach Janta Party.”Many at the rally held national flags. Credit: Divya Ashlesha.Riddhima, a biotechnology student at the Pune University, said, “I am here because my best friend gave NEET and she is at home crying.”She explained: “She gave it last year as well, but couldn’t clear it by 50-60 marks. And this year the paper was leaked. This isn’t her fault but the government’s.” Riddhima had also appeared for NEET last year but did not this year “because as a middle-class student it’s not possible to spend your whole year studying for one exam”.As a biotechnology student at a government institute, she was also angry about the lack of support for research. “The government has money for temples, for roads and bridges which collapse, for a metro which is still not running,” she said. “But they have no funding for research.”This was Riddhima’s first protest. “My friends said don’t support the cockroaches, and I don’t support them as a party,” she said. “But had the government stepped up on and done something, I wouldn’t have felt pushed to protest.”Women with cockroach masks. Credit: Divya AsleshaPayoja, a student who recently appeared for her Class 10 exam, said she was at the protest to show support for friends affected by the cancellation of NEET.“Selfishly, I am also here for myself,” she said. “Our future NEET students are going to be our doctors and healthcare professionals. And if you care about your own health and wellbeing, then you should invest in yourself.”She added: “I am not saying this entire education system will be automatically reformed if one minister resigns. But it’s the first step towards gaining accountability and moving towards actual change.”A little away from the crowd, a fourth-year business studies student was unimpressed. “This is my first protest. I just came here to check it out. It didn’t turn out to be that interesting,” he said. “I expected much more discussions about the issues that actually plague the country: the first, climate, and the second, wealth inequality, which is very very prevalent in India.”He said that he was there to see “what form these protests could take and if that can be beneficial”. The frequent leaks of examination papers was a key concern at the protest. Credit: Divya AsleshaThe protest did not attract only students. Others at the protest felt that the “cockroach” movement had helped channel anger and unhappiness over concerns about the environment and the state of democratic politics in the country.A software engineer and a mother to a school-going child said several problems such as the destruction of the environment and rising cost of education had brought her to the protest – even though she was “not completely with the cockroaches”.“If Modi could stop the war, why couldn’t they stop the paper leaks?” she asked, referring to the pro-government propaganda that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had halted the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022 so that Indian students stranded in Ukraine could be evacuated. The government has completed 12 years in power, she said. “People have given them this victory,” the engineer said, adding that she was from a family that supported the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. But, she added, “... I think it is time to rise above divisiveness and focus on people.”One man was protesting on behalf of ardent government supporters. Credit: Divya AsleshaTowards the exit of the campus, a 28-year-old man from Gujarat held his poster up in Hindu protesting on behalf of “andhbhakts”, or those who support the government blindly, because even they have a right to a good education. “I believe andhbhakts are like a drunk friend who has lost his sense of good and bad,” he said. “We don’t leave our drunk friends on the road. We take them home. Which is why we should strive for a good future, which will also benefit devoted supporters.”But there is a much longer story to the poster – of becoming politically aware. I was avoiding politics because it had become depressing, the man said. While watching movies or reading about the Indian freedom struggle as a child, he would imagine how he would have acted had he been in that situation. “There is a saying in Gujarati about digging a hole when there is a fire,” he said. “That is my approach to life. But now I think that this is my time – and I am still afraid. So, I decided let’s not do the ‘digging a hole thing’.”Attending the protest felt like relief, said the man. “A protest is like therapy – political therapy,” he said. “It helps channel your angst in the right way.”He added: “By coming here, I feel less afraid – sure, I may have felt differently had there been lathis. But I feel a release of repressed emotions in the right direction.”