Activists and supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) clash with police personnel during a protest demanding the resignation of India's Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged NEET examination irregularities in New Delhi on July 20, 2026. —Arun Sankar—AFP/Getty ImagesIndia’s youth-led “cockroach movement” was born just over two months ago as a satirical online campaign. But it has quickly swelled into a formidable real-world political force, bringing tens of thousands of protesters into the streets in the country’s capital in recent days to call for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and reforms to India’s troubled education system.Thousands of supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) continued to protest in the capital of New Delhi on Wednesday even after demonstrations earlier in the week erupted into violent clashes with the police that left dozens of people injured. The movement’s Monday protests in New Delhi marked one of the country’s largest anti-government gatherings in years, with an estimated 20,000 people, made up mostly of students and young people, taking to the city’s streets. Amid the massive protests, a senior government minister reportedly met with CJP representatives to hear their demands, in what was seemingly the government’s first move to hold talks with members of the movement.But in central Delhi, the protests confronted an aggressive law enforcement response. Police set up barricades and used batons and tear gas to disperse thousands marching on Parliament. Video from The Associated Press showed protesters gathering together to push over the tall yellow barricades and sometimes climbing atop them as droves of Delhi Police stood guard in riot gear. Delhi Police said that around 180 people were injured amid the Monday clashes, including 118 security personnel and 60 protesters. Meanwhile Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the cockroach movement, said 150 protesters were receiving treatment in hospitals.The movement called off another march on Parliament that had been planned for Tuesday over safety concerns."We will not march again because the police will hurt the youth again," Dipke said at a press conference on Tuesday.But a sit-in continued into Tuesday and Wednesday in Jantar Mantar, close to the Parliament building. A separate sit-in was also held at the residence of the country’s right-wing prime minister, Narendra Modi, where the leader of the country’s opposition party was detained on Tuesday. The following day, members of the opposition party held a protest in Parliament in support of the cockroach movement protesters.After weeks of silence in the face of the movement’s growing momentum, Modi on Tuesday made his first comments since May about a widespread leak that led to the cancellation of national medical entrance exams this spring, an issue that has been one of the driving forces behind the protests. The Prime Minister defended the government’s response and vowed to strictly punish those involved, according to a cabinet minister. Pradhan, meanwhile, condemned the protest at Modi’s residence in a post on X and stated that the government “remains 100% committed” to discussing the exam leak and “addressing every genuine concern of our youth on the floor of the House.”“We owe our students more than outrage. We owe them answers, reforms and accountability,” he wrote. “That is exactly what our government remains committed to delivering.”Still, the CJP demonstrations have shown no signs of abating. Here’s what to know about the growing movement, and the ongoing protests it’s leading in India. Members of the Indian National Congress (INC) scuffle with police during a march to Lok Bhavan in Hyderabad, Telangana, India, on July 22, 2026. Protesters gathered to condemn the detention of opposition leader of parliament, Rahul Gandhi, during a protest in New Delhi, earlier in the day. —Jwala Kotesh—NurPhoto/Getty ImagesHow did the cockroach movement start?In the spring, Indian authorities voided the results of the May 3 NEET exam, the country’s highly competitive entrance exam for admission to undergraduate medical programs, after an investigation found that questions had been leaked. The incident marked just the latest in a series of leaks and other irregularities that have impacted the exam in recent years. As a result of the May test being voided, more than two million students have been forced to re-take the stressful and costly exams, prompting outrage and demands for systemic reform.That situation has served as the most immediate spark for the exploding momentum of the cockroach movement and a core focus of its ongoing protests, which have also tapped into young people’s broader anger over extremely high unemployment rates and economic pressures.The CJP itself was born in response to a comment the Chief Justice of India’s Supreme Court made during an unrelated hearing the same month of the testing scandal, in which she compared young unemployed people to "cockroaches” and “parasites.”“What if all cockroaches came together?” Dipke, who was then living in the U.S. after graduating from Boston University, wrote on his social media in response. That initial post drew a huge reaction amid the backlash to the justice’s remark. And Dipke proceeded to build out the movement from there. He created social media accounts and a website for the CJP—whose name references both the justice’s remark and the country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party—and garnered a fast-growing following as he did so. Within mere weeks, over 20 million people had followed Dipke’s accounts, and the Modi government temporarily blocked the X account for the CJP in the country. As the movement gained momentum, Dipke decided to return to India to lead it in Delhi, and at events across the country. “Build a party for the young people who keep getting called lazy, chronically online, and — most recently — cockroaches,” the CJP articulates its “vision” on its website. “That's it. That's the mission. The rest is satire.”A demonstrator wearing a cockroach mask during a protest organized by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) in Mumbai, India, on July 16, 2026. —Indranil Aditya—NurPhoto/Getty ImagesWhat is the movement demanding?The movement’s website features a manifesto detailing five demands. They include restricting chief justices from being appointed to Parliament following their retirement; arresting the Chief Election Commissioner if any citizens’ votes are erased; reserving 50% of cabinet positions for women while increasing reservation—the quota to increase female representation across the government—from 33% to 50%; creating a more independent media; and barring any lawmaker who switches political parties from holding a government position for 20 years. The CJP also posted a separate “charter” on the website last week titled “5 Demands to End India's Exam Crisis.” Those demands include creating a new Public Examinations Act to increase transparency and accountability; establishing new and reforming current examination bodies; developing a “students’ rights charter”; forming a welfare fund for students and their families; and establishing consistent parliamentary oversight of examination authorities, “not only when there’s a scandal.”A police personnel fires tear gas shells to disperse activists and supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) during a protest demanding the resignation of India's Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged NEET examination irregularities in New Delhi on July 20, 2026. —Sajjad Hussain—AFP/Getty ImagesWeeks of protest culminate in mass demonstrations—and violent clashesProtestors have camped at Jantar Mantar, the epicenter of the protests, for the past month.In June, CJP members began staging a sit-in at the site, refusing to move until Pradhan resigned. Along with students, professionals and families with young children have joined the demonstrations there. Later in the month, Sonam Wangchuk, an education activist who has been detained by Modi’s government for past demonstrations, began a hunger strike on June 28 to show his support for the CJP, which caused more people to surge to the site in support.Wangchuk proceeded not to eat for 20 days—a period that ended only after Delhi police hospitalized him against his will, sparking national outcry. After being forcibly removed from his hunger strike, Wangchuk called on CJP members to march on Parliament. They did so on Monday. Protesters took to the streets in Delhi that day holding signs that read “Stop normalizing paper leaks!” and “Save education, save the future,” along with countless others calling for Pradhan’s resignation. The day’s protest, which marked the culmination of weeks of building momentum, then escalated in clashes with authorities.Dipke, the founder of the cockroach movement, called the police response to the protests on Monday “really cruel and evil” while speaking to reporters in the streets on Tuesday. He accused male police officers of tearing clothes off of girls and beating them “black and blue.”After witnessing the aggressive response, Dipke said, “I don’t believe that Narendra Modi deserves to be called as the Prime Minister. He’s a dictator.”Police personnel detain a demonstrator during a protest march in Mumbai on July 22, 2026, in solidarity with the ongoing protest at New Delhi's Jantar Mantar demanding the resignation of India's Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged NEET exam irregularities. —Punit Paranjpe—AFP/Getty ImagesIn addition to the ongoing sit-in in Jantar Mantar, which has now lasted over four weeks, a protest against Monday’s police response was held outside Modi’s residence on Tuesday.“We have marched to PM Modi’s house to demand answers from him for the brutalities against young students yesterday,” Rahul Gandhi—the leader of India’s opposition party, the Indian National Congress (INC), which has also rallied behind the cockroach movement—posted on Tuesday. “The Government doesn’t want to take any accountability or does it want to have a debate on it in Parliament,” he continued, calling for Modi and Indian Home Minister Amit Shah, who oversees the police, to resign “for destroying the future of India’s youth.”Gandhi was detained along with other opposition leaders during the sit-in outside of the prime minister’s residence.On Wednesday, protests continued in the capital, with lawmakers in the opposition party gathering to demonstrate both in- and outside Parliament. Gandhi, released following his detention, led other opposition lawmakers in protest outside of the Parliament building as many waved signs calling for Pradhan’s resignation. More opposition leaders inside of the building called for the government to address the violent police clashes on Monday, causing proceedings to be suspended. Meanwhile, at Jantar Mantar, food deliveries sent in by supporters sustained protestors as they continued to demand that Pradhan step down.