India’s youth strain to be heard as angry ‘cockroaches’ stage New Delhi march

Thousands of anguished and distressed youngsters gathered in protest in India’s capital on June 6, rallying under the banner of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a newly formed viral youth movement, to demonstrate their anger against recurring exam paper leaks and other crises affecting the country's youth.



Protesters, led by CJP representatives, are calling for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, as well as accountability from the government to ensure that competitive entrance exams are conducted with fairness and transparency.



These protests follow the annulment of the highly competitive national undergraduate medical school entrance exam after it emerged that the question paper had been leaked. Copies were reportedly sold for anywhere between 500,000 rupees and three million rupees.



These leaks, together with unemployment and rising inequality, have added to simmering unrest and anger among the young in India. Nearly 40 per cent of Indian graduates aged 25 and below are unemployed, while around 20 per cent of those aged between 25 and 29 are still without jobs.



This sentiment has propelled CJP's stunning growth, with over 22.2 million followers on Instagram since its creation on May 16, more than Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has a following of 9.4 million.