Thousands of young people remained camped at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday for a third consecutive day since a police crackdown on their march to Parliament, as the Union government airlifted 20 additional companies of the Central Reserve Police Force into the capital and shut 16 Delhi Metro stations in the security cordon around the seat of government.
The protest, called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a youth movement that began as online satire two months ago, is demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG medical entrance examination. It is the largest sustained street challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has faced in its third term.
Prime Minister Modi has not publicly addressed the protests. Requests for comment made to the Ministry of Education and the Delhi Police through their public affairs channels had not been answered at the time of publication.
## What happened on Monday
On July 20, the opening day of Parliament's monsoon session, the CJP led a "Sansad Chalo" march from the Jantar Mantar protest site towards Parliament. Al Jazeera put the crowd at more than 10,000; Bloomberg described it as the largest protest in the capital in recent years. Police had not granted permission for the march.
Delhi Police blocked arterial roads, closed Metro stations and, according to multiple news reports, suspended mobile internet in parts of central Delhi. As demonstrators pushed at barricades near Patel Chowk, police used lathis and tear gas. Footage broadcast and circulated widely showed officers striking protesters, including some already on the ground.
**The casualty figures are disputed, and remain so.** Delhi Police say 118 police personnel and 60 protesters were injured. The CJP and Al Jazeera's reporting from the site put the number of injured students at more than 100. The CJP has additionally alleged that pellet guns were used against protesters, an allegation the Delhi Police have not confirmed and which this outlet has not independently verified. Police, for their part, say protesters pelted stones, attempted to breach barricades and damaged government property.
Six FIRs have been registered so far in connection with violence and vandalism during the march. Police said they were examining more than 250 videos to identify individuals. In a statement on X on Tuesday evening, the force rejected claims that detainees were being held without access to lawyers, saying no person was then in detention.
## The exam scandal behind the anger
The trigger is the 2026 NEET-UG controversy. The examination, taken on May 3 by more than 2.2 million candidates seeking undergraduate medical and dental places, was cancelled on May 12 after investigators found overlaps between a question paper circulating in advance and the paper actually set. The Central Bureau of Investigation took over the inquiry and made arrests, including a chemistry professor in Pune identified in reports as a principal accused. The National Testing Agency held a re-examination on June 21 under tightened security.
Students say the damage was not confined to NEET. Similar complaints of leaks, organised cheating and disputed grading have been raised over UGC-NET and CSIR-NET. Al Jazeera has reported that more than 20 students have died by suicide during the crisis, with many leaving statements referring to the paper leaks. That figure has not been officially confirmed by any government agency, and this outlet is seeking independent confirmation.
## From a judge's insult to a movement
The CJP was launched on May 16 by Abhijeet Dipke, a political communications strategist who previously worked with the Aam Aadmi Party. The name is a deliberate appropriation of a remark by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, who on May 15, during a hearing on senior advocate designations, likened unemployed youth and online activists to cockroaches and parasites. Dipke announced a platform for "cockroaches", listing the entry criteria as being unemployed, chronically online and able to rant professionally. The account crossed 10 million followers within days.
The satire hardened into a sit-in at Jantar Mantar. The Ladakhi education and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, 59, joined in late June and began an indefinite hunger strike. On July 18, following a change of leadership in the Delhi Police, officers removed barricades at the site and took Wangchuk to Safdarjung Hospital. His family and the CJP called it illegal detention. The Delhi High Court declined immediate relief. He was discharged on Wednesday and, according to reports, shifted to a private hospital. Union Ministers J P Nadda and Jitendra Singh visited him.
Anger over that removal is widely credited with swelling Monday's turnout beyond what organisers expected.
## Parliament, the courts and the opposition
Both Houses were adjourned repeatedly on Wednesday as opposition MPs, many dressed in black, protested the police action. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge raised the lathi charge in the Rajya Sabha before the House was adjourned amid uproar. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra told reporters that the government was suppressing both debate and peaceful protest, saying democracy was finished. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government was willing to hold a discussion on the paper leak.
On Tuesday, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav staged a sit-in outside the Prime Minister's residence. They were removed by police and detained for several hours before being released. Gandhi has issued five demands, including a public apology from the Prime Minister to students and the resignation of Pradhan. Congress units held solidarity protests in Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir and Assam.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined an urgent listing of a plea challenging the police action. When counsel offered video evidence, Chief Justice Surya Kant, whose May remark gave the movement its name, said: "Don't waste our time. We don't want to watch any videos."
The BJP has defended the police. MP Bansuri Swaraj said permission granted to Dipke had been valid only until 5 pm, and that organisers had nonetheless continued their sit-in for 21 days.
## Talks, and their collapse
Two CJP spokespeople met Health Minister J P Nadda on Monday and put three demands: Pradhan's resignation, Wangchuk's discharge, and compensation of roughly 90 lakh rupees for the families of students who died by suicide. CJP spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka said the delegation waited four hours for a ten minute meeting and called it a waste of time. Nadda said the meeting was cordial and that he had asked protesters to end the sit-in and help restore normalcy.
On Tuesday Dipke told reporters that any further talks would have to take place at Jantar Mantar. He has said the movement will not back down until Pradhan resigns.
## Where it stands
The movement's own discipline is under strain. The CJP removed a spokesperson, Vijetya Dahiya, this week over videos it described as deeply insensitive, and some participants are pressing for the protest to decentralise beyond the CJP's leadership.
Crowd size at the site on Wednesday could not be independently established. AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj claimed on X that a lakh of people were present; that figure is not corroborated and should be treated as a political claim rather than an estimate.
Analysts quoted by Al Jazeera expect no concessions. Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay said the Prime Minister's instinct is to project immovability and to absorb rather than accommodate protest, at least until it begins to erode his own voting base.
For now, the barricades are back up, the CRPF companies are landing from Kolkata, and the students are still there.