New Delhi, India – Tens of thousands of demonstrators, predominantly students, are planning to march toward India’s Parliament from a central protest encampment, calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his education minister.
For nearly a month, adherents of the viral “cockroach” movement have occupied the Jantar Mantar area in New Delhi, the nation’s most prominent protest venue, situated just a few kilometres from Parliament, following a series of scandals involving exam paper leaks, technical failures, and cancelled tests that have sparked widespread anger across the world’s most populous country.
On Saturday, dozens of police officers forcibly removed activist Sonam Wangchuk from the protest site, 20 days after the 59‑year‑old Gandhian began a hunger strike in solidarity with the movement.
Police cited a court order and Wangchuk’s “deteriorating health condition” to justify the removal. However, Wangchuk’s wife, Gitanjali J. Angmo, said her husband was taken to the hospital against his wishes and accused the government of “illegal detention” disguised as medical care.
Outraged by Wangchuk’s removal, Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), has called for Modi’s resignation and urged his supporters to march to Parliament on Monday, the opening day of its monsoon session.
With thousands answering Dipke’s call, New Delhi remains on edge amid a heavy deployment of police and paramilitary forces. Various activist groups and political parties have voiced solidarity with the march and urged people to join.
Below is an overview of the Gen Z‑led protest and the factors that have led to this moment:
What is the cockroach movement?
It consists mainly of young Indians who label themselves “cockroaches,” presenting themselves as survivors of what they view as a “decaying” political system under Modi’s government.
The remark provoked widespread backlash, prompting Dipke, a former Boston University student, to pose on X: “What if all cockroaches united?” The joke resonated strongly. Within days, Dipke launched a website inviting supporters to register under his Instagram handle, which quickly amassed millions of followers.
Last month, Dipke travelled from the United States to New Delhi with the aim of translating a viral online moment into an on‑the‑ground movement. Initially, the movement called for the removal of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, accusing him of inaction amid recurring exam‑paper leaks that have contributed to the suicides of dozens of students over the past decade.
What is happening at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar?
The CJP movement is advocating sweeping reforms of India’s competitive examination system and seeking compensation for families of students who died by suicide following exam leaks and result controversies.
However, Pradhan has declined to resign and has previously described the protesters as the “B team of terrorists.” Modi, who has not held a news conference in over 12 years yet remains active on social media, has not publicly responded to the protests.
Meanwhile, Wangchuk, a renowned engineer‑turned educator from Ladakh, continued his hunger strike, which began on June 28. He previously staged a similar protest in September, demanding special status for Ladakh, a Himalayan region that Modi’s administration separated from Indian‑administered Kashmir in 2019.
South Asia has increasingly become a hotspot for Gen Z activism, with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal experiencing mass protests that have led to the fall of unpopular regimes. India, home to the world’s largest Gen Z cohort, has grappled with unemployment, record inequality, religious tensions, and declining democratic metrics since 2014.
On July 8, Wangchuk announced intentions to march on Parliament demanding Pradhan’s resignation.
The choice of the date was deliberate.
Parliament is meeting for its monsoon session, one of the three annual legislative sessions it holds, starting on Monday.
“If you truly wish to help, then do more than messages from comfortable couches; come to Delhi on 20 July,” he wrote on X, later referring to the protest as “India’s second freedom movement”.
“This march is to reclaim our India. It is a fight for a better future, not only for students but for the nation as a whole. People must turn out in large numbers and somehow reach Parliament,” Saurav Das, chief spokesperson for the CJP, told Al Jazeera.
“This march will also decide whether we are alive as a nation and society.”
Wangchuk and Dipke have consistently appealed to the protesters to remain peaceful despite provocation by the Hindu nationalist government’s supporters and police.
Dipke has been assaulted at least twice in the past month, slapped during an event in Jaipur city last month and attacked with an ink‑like substance on Saturday.
Dipke broke down on Saturday morning and pledged to continue the hunger strike in place of Wangchuk.
“Until now, we were demanding Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, but after this despicable act, we will now demand the resignation of Narendra Modi,” he said.
What are the ‘cockroaches’ demanding?
The Jantar Mantar site was packed on Saturday evening as thousands of people turned up after the forced removal of Wangchuk.
Shreya Kumar, a Delhi University student, said she was shaken by the way police “cheated the protesters,” she told Al Jazeera at the protest site.
“I came because my blood is boiling. This government has taken everything for a ride. They are liars and cheaters,” said the 19‑year‑old student, who was joined by her friends.
Das, the CJP spokesperson, said Wangchuk is under an “illegal detention and the grounds for such detention have not been furnished to us”.
Angmo has petitioned the court, demanding that her husband be transferred from a government hospital to a private facility of their choice.
The action against Wangchuk was highly dictatorial. It shows that the government does not believe in dialogue, deliberation or discussion—the three tenets of democracy—Das said.
Kumar, who spent the night at the site, worries that police might overpower the protesters as they prepare for the march to Parliament.
“We are all ready to face the police and the paramilitary,” she said. “We say: Bring it on! But the minister must resign.”
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