Did Too Many Cooks Spoil The Broth? How A Protest Over 'Right Issues' Got Diluted By 'Wrong' People

Published 22 July 2026 · local

Did Too Many Cooks Spoil The Broth? How A Protest Over 'Right Issues' Got Diluted By 'Wrong' People Written By, Last Updated: July 22, 2026

Did Too Many Cooks Spoil The Broth? How A Protest Over 'Right Issues' Got Diluted By 'Wrong' People Written By, Last Updated: July 22, 2026, 14:37 IST A demand for education reforms has increasingly been overshadowed by political interventions, clashes, infighting and competing agendas, risking focus on NEET and accountability. Rapid Read Delhi Jantar Mantar Protest: Protestors pelting stones at police They say too many cooks spoil the broth. Some say, that’s exactly what seems to have happened to the students’ protest that started off with students, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and Ladakh activist Sonam Wangchuk but has now become a spectacle for all the wrong reasons – be it the completely unrelated slogans raised on the protest’s main stage or Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s march to the Prime Minister’s residence. Till a few days ago, questions from the protest site at Jantar Mantar were about the education system of India, about the lives lost due to the NEET paper leak, due to gaps in India’s examination system. On June 28, Sonam Wangchuk, the man credited for his sustainable innovations, educational reforms, and climate activism in the Himalayas, began a fast demanding an overhaul of Indian education reforms and the resignation of the Education Minister. He joined the CJP protest, with a plan to march to Parliament on July 20, with the same demands, hoping the government would reach out for a dialogue. The protesters cited several issues like the NEET paper leak and flaws related to CBSE’s OSM setup and other alleged lapses in the education system, like rechecking errors etc. The Moment The Protest Got Diluted However, at the same time, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke wrote to several political parties seeking their support for the protest. It is then when critics started questioning the authenticity of the entire protest. One of the first politicians to visit the protest and meet Wangchuk was Samajwadi Party leader Dimple Yadav. Political observers questioned if she would have bothered to go if Uttar Pradesh wasn’t going to elections next year.

Over the next few days, TMC’s Mahua Moitra, Communist Party leaders and more politicians from opposition parties joined the protest, turning it more into a political slugfest. However, it wasn’t just the political parties. Some personalities, who have, in the past, been associated with an anti-establishment ideologies joined the protest. But that too was not the problem yet. The protest that was meant for education reforms saw slogans that were not even remotely related to that subject – slogans demanding the release of Umar Khalid, slogans with religious overtones. The July 20 Chaos The protest took another turn when the students were scheduled to march from Jantar Mantar to Parliament. Temperatures had been running high after Sonam Wangchuk was removed from Jantar Mantar and admitted to Safdarjung Hospital as his health deteriorated. On the morning of July 20, there were reports of stone pelting on police and the security forces personnel who were deployed at Jantar Mantar. This was followed by lathicharge and tear gas shells being fired at protesters. The protest that had been going on peacefully for over two weeks, took an ugly turn and became a spectacle over social media. What followed was social media blame game over who made the first wrong move, the protesters or the police. Soon, social media had completely divided and the critics now have solid grounds with all of the above factors to discredit the protest. The CJP Infighting There were social media posts over fissures within the CJP, that had been leading the Jantar Mantar protest. The Cockroach Janta Party’s recent infighting became visible after a video of spokesperson Vijeta Dahiya at a burger outlet during the Delhi protest triggered a backlash inside the movement. The party said his conduct was “deeply insensitive" while protesters were facing police action, and it removed him from the post, stripping him of all official responsibilities. The entire episode is now making people question the credibility of CJP.