CJP protests | From exam paper leaks to unemployment, a generation at breaking point
Sitting in his family home in Bihar’s Nawada town, Abhishek Kumar has spent the last week glued to his phone. A bout of typhoid has
Sitting in his family home in Bihar’s Nawada town, Abhishek Kumar has spent the last week glued to his phone. A bout of typhoid has left him barely able to walk, but he cannot look away. On his screen, the protests at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar unfold, stirring a powerful sense of déjà vu. He understands the protesters’ anger. In December 2024, the 28-year-old was among hundreds of aspirants who spent three months braving the biting cold, sleeping in the open at Patna’s iconic Gandhi Maidan to demand action over the alleged leak of the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) exam papers they had taken. It was just one of nearly 150 competitive examinations Kumar says he has appeared for over the past nine years. The protests amounted to nothing. As did Kumar’s attempts at securing a job, despite holding a Master’s degree in Political Science. He is shattered, he says, but not at the failure to get a job. “We protested for three months with a simple demand: a meeting with Bihar’s Chief Minister. But they did not relent,” he recalls. “It feels like there is no one to listen to us now.” That is why Kumar supports the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led protests rocking the capital. “We are broken now. We have lost all hope,” he says. “That is why this protest is needed.” A platform of their own Like Kumar, thousands of young Indians are angry and no longer able to swallow their despair. The CJP protest, which began in early June in central Delhi’s Jantar Mantar area, started off demanding accountability for botched examinations and paper leaks — more than 2 million candidates had to re-appear for the Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) after the question paper was leaked in May. On July 18, educator-environmentalist Sonam Wangchuk, who was on a hunger strike as a part of the protests, was forcibly moved from Jantar Mantar to Safdarjung Hospital. Since then, protests have broken out across the country, from Mumbai to Kolkata, Bengaluru to Panjim to Dehradun. The protesters cut across party lines — while Left student bodies have been active, many people have also claimed to be Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) voters in the past. For all of them, the protest has become a platform to voice their long-held frustrations. The grievances are many: from poor quality education and compromised examinations to the lack of jobs. But above all, they are united by the anger of not being heard on issues that matter to them. “Many youngsters believe that the freedom to come together, to collectivise and demand rights has vanished in the last few years,” says Vinita Singh, founder-trustee of We, The People, an NGO that promotes constitutional literacy. “The Jantar Mantar protests have given people a collective voice. That is why these protests feel like a celebration.” She is referring to the visuals of people using music, memes and catchy slogans to poke fun at the government.
The BriefWire