How did the Cockroach Janta party emerge?The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) might have started out as an online joke, but – driven by millions of discontented young people in India – it has swiftly grown into one of the most unexpected challenges to the powerful right-wing government of Narendra Modi.The CJP was founded in May by Abhijeet Dipke (30), an Indian national who recently graduated from university in the US. Enraged to hear comments made by the chief justice of India, who compared the country’s unemployed youth to “parasites” and “cockroaches” during a supreme court hearing, Dipke jokingly put out a call on social media: “What if all cockroaches came together?”The response was overwhelming. Dipke built a website and social media accounts for a satirical Cockroach Janta Party – a poke at Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – complete with a biting manifesto taking aim at the government and a tagline: “A political party for the people the system forgot to count.”Within two weeks, the CJP’s Instagram page had more than 22 million followers, overtaking the BJP. The Modi government, highly intolerant of criticism, attempted to block its social media accounts on national security grounds but was not successful.What are the causes championed by the CJP?As the CJP began to mobilise support, Dipke focused the movement on a burning issue for many of India’s millions of students: leaks of medical entrance exams, which have repeatedly been sold to the highest bidder.The pressure on students to succeed is cripplingly high: more than two million students compete for just 130,000 places. Many families spend their life savings and get into high levels of debt to pay for their children to be coached for these notoriously gruelling medical exams, known by the acronym Neet. More is now spent in India on private tuition than the government’s entire higher-education budget.A string of exam leaks has forced millions of students into retakes and been linked to dozens of suicides in recent years. The Neet exams are also not the only papers to have been leaked.Demonstrators hold placards during a protest against Delhi police over clashes with Cockroach Janta Party supporters. Photograph: EPA Members of the Cockroach Janta Party and social activists protest in Bengaluru, India, on Monday. Photograph: EPA The Modi government has been accused of not taking responsibility for the exams fiasco. The CJP began to rally supporters around the issue; calling for the government to be held accountable for exam leaks and for the education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, to resign.For many of India’s Gen Zs and millennials, the CJP has also given voice to wider frustrations over an education system in crisis and a job market that has been systematically failing them. According to one recent study, almost 40 per cent of India’s graduates below the age of 25 are unemployed.When did the CJP first take to the streets?The CJP’s first offline protest took place in Delhi in early June, calling for the resignation of Pradhan. Dipke returned from the US to lead the demonstration, first in Delhi and then at events across the country.Later that month, CJP supporters held their second big protest in Delhi, where this time they pledged not to move until Pradhan was gone. The protesters were joined by Sonam Wangchuk, an eminent engineer and education activist from the Indian state of Ladakh, who was last year arrested and detained under terror laws by the government for his activism.Wangchuk announced he would embark on a Gandhian hunger strike in solidarity with the students and would not eat until the education minister stepped down.As the protest and Wangchuk’s hunger strike went on into July, they were visited by multiple senior opposition figures. However, the Modi government did not engage with the CJP or Wangchuk and Pradhan dismissed them as the “B-team of terrorists”.How has Sonam Wangchuk mobilised support?As Wangchuk’s condition worsened more than two weeks into his hunger strike, the government faced mounting criticism. After 18 days, the Delhi court ordered for his health to be monitored on a daily basis.Early on Sunday morning, 20 days into his hunger strike, Delhi police sparked national outrage after they arrived and forcibly removed Wangchuk and took him to a government hospital against his will. The police said it was to protect his health – his wife condemned it as “illegal detention”.From his hospital bed, Wangchuk called on CJP supporters to march to parliament on Monday and demand Pradhan’s resignation.How large was Monday’s protest?The CJP protest on Monday swelled into one of the largest antigovernment protests in years. By early morning, thousands of protesters began to flock to the streets of central Delhi, joining hundreds who had already been camped out overnight.Protesters run as police use tear gas during clashes at a demonstration organised by the Cockroach Janta Party in New Delhi, India, on Monday. Photograph: Ritesh Shukla/Getty Images Indian police personnel detain a supporter of the Cockroach Janta Party during a protest in Mumbai, India, on Monday. Photograph: EPA The crowd was largely made up of students and other young people, but parents whose children had been affected by the leaks were also present in high numbers.Delhi police refused permission for the protesters to march on parliament. Roads across the city were blockaded with barriers, the internet was shut down and protesters were kettled into a designated protest site about a mile away from parliament. However, protesters still continued to arrive in droves, with more than 20,000 people gathered by the early afternoon.As the crowds tried to push towards parliament, police responded with violence, including baton charges and tear gas, prompting criticism from CJP leaders and opposition politicians. Protesters and police were injured in the clashes. Dipke condemned the police response as “absolutely brutal”.How many people were hurt?Delhi Police said nearly 180 people, including 118 security and police personnel and 60 protesters, were injured following clashes on Monday.The founder of the self-named CJP said more than 150 protesters were undergoing treatment in hospital.Dipke said ​a planned march on parliament on Tuesday was being called off as the group did not want more young people to be hurt and he apologised to supporters, especially women, who he said were ⁠beaten by male police officers.“We will not march again because the police ⁠will hurt the youth again,” he told a ​press conference.The Delhi Police said protesters had “displayed unruly, aggressive and violent behaviour” and “deliberately violated the prohibitory orders in force”, despite warnings on Monday.Members of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and social activists protest in Bengaluru, India, on Monday. Photograph: EPA What happens next?After weeks of ignoring the CJP movement, the Modi government offered a meeting on Monday morning. At a brief 10-minute interaction, three CJP demands were put forward but so far “no commitments were made”, according to the CJP’s spokesperson.The demands include the release of Wangchuk, Pradhan’s resignation and compensation of 10 million rupees (€100,000) for each student who died by suicide following the leak. About a dozen students took their own lives after the exam paper leak, local ‌media reported.There was no public response to the protest by Pradhan. By late on Monday, even as the police tried to clear the Delhi protest camp, Dipke emphasised that as long as Pradhan remained in his position, they would not be moved. “This peaceful protest is not ending!” read the party’s post on X. – Guardian. Additional reporting by Reuters