CJP Protest: A Saturday with ‘Cockroaches’ at Jantar Mantar – Of students, reels and slogans

Published 6 June 2026 · local

Jantar Mantar, New Delhi: As the summer sun climbed over Delhi on a sultry June morning, groups of people have gathered in front of the

Jantar Mantar, New Delhi: As the summer sun climbed over Delhi on a sultry June morning, groups of people have gathered in front of the Parliament Street Police Station in the heart of the capital. A battery of Blue Delhi Police buses and vans are stationed across the road near C-Hexagon roundabout surrounding India Gate. Police personnel and paramilitary troops far outnumber the supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). Abhijeet Dipke, the 30-year-old founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), arrives in India from Boston after completing a master's degree in the United States. Dipke has asked supporters and students to join his protest at Jantar Mantar, demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over recent controversies surrounding NEET-UG medical entrance exam, On-Screen Marking (OSM) in CBSE exams. Also Read | Abhijeet Dipke urges supporters to skip airport gathering as he returns to India At around 8 AM, Dipke announced on social media that he had landed at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI), about a 30-minute drive from Parliament Street Police Station under normal traffic conditions. Outside the police station, officers urged supporters to clear the road and proceed to Jantar Mantar, where Dipke had been granted permission to hold the protest. Even so, the few hundred CJP supporters on the ground seemed fewer in number than the content creators who had turned up to cover the event. Armed with smartphones on selfie sticks, many filmed the gathering and interviewed supporters wearing black T-shirts emblazoned with the CJP logo – a cockroach. View full Image View full Image Hundreds gather to join CJP Founder Abhijeet Dipke to demand the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over irregularities in central government-conducted exams, at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Saturday, 6 June. (CJP) About 15 minutes after his arrival, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) announced that the satirical political outfit, which emerged less than a month ago, had been allowed to go ahead with the demonstration. CJP, through its social media handles, appealed to supporters to reach Jantar Mantar – a compound less than a mile away designated for protests.

At Jantar Mantar, attendees were subjected to security checks by police before being allowed into the protest site. The barricaded compound gradually filled with CJP supporters, many of them students, as well as journalists and television crews covering the event. As crowds streamed in from both sides, supporters broke into chants demanding Pradhan's resignation. Also Read | Cockroach Janta Party protest LIVE | Sonam Wangchuk reaches Jantar Mantar The crowd reflected a cross-section of people brought together by a shared sense of grievance. There was a parent from Mayur Vihar whose daughter had recently dropped out of NEET preparation following the paper leak controversy; a teacher from Pune who had flown to Delhi to join the protest; Class 12 passouts inspired by the ‘Cockroach movement’; a visually impaired man advocating for education reforms; and a grandmother who said her granddaughter had slipped into depression after the paper leak. View full Image View full Image New Delhi, Jun 06 (ANI): A supporter of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) wears a mask as he holds a poster during a protest at the Jantar Mantar, in New Delhi on Saturday. (ANI Photo) (Hemant Rawat) “My daughter was preparing for NEET. She was taken aback by the leak of the paper. It's not a class 12 examination. A single mark can mar or make your career. Ask a NEET aspirant. We are glad that someone is speaking for our kids and us,” said Om Shankar, the 50-year-old Mayur Vihar resident who was at the protest. By 10 AM, more people had started streaming into Jantar Mantar. Content creators remained busy filming reels and livestreams, their smartphones mounted on selfie sticks as they documented the gathering. Many supporters wore the trademark cockroach masks during the protest. Then came an unexpected anti-clima internet speeds slowed to a crawl. As the crowd swelled, many attendees speculated that signal jammers had been deployed in the area. Whether true or not, the disruption became a talking point among protesters and content creators alike. By then, however, the gathering was no longer dominated by mobile-wielding reel makers.