Leaders of India’s youth-led “cockroach” movement said Friday that the government has asked for time until Saturday afternoon to respond to their central demand, the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over exam paper leaks, following a fresh round of talks between the two sides.
The talks came hours after activist Sonam Wangchuk ended his 26-day hunger strike, raising hopes of a breakthrough after tens of thousands of young protesters converged on Delhi this week to press for the minister’s ouster. The movement now stands as the biggest youth-led challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he took office in 2014, with opposition parties echoing its demands and repeatedly disrupting the monsoon session of parliament.
Friday’s discussions brought together senior federal ministers J.P. Nadda and Jitendra Singh on one side, and Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, spokespersons for the Cockroach Janta Party movement, on the other. CJP leaders said they made clear that nothing short of Pradhan’s resignation would be acceptable, warning that protests would spread further without it. “The government has asked for time until tomorrow afternoon to respond on this point,” Ranka told reporters, adding that the movement hoped Pradhan would either be dismissed or resign so the matter could be resolved. Nadda described the talks as cordial, saying the government had committed to meeting again Saturday afternoon to discuss the group’s three main demands.
Beyond Pradhan’s resignation, the CJP is calling for police cases against protesters to be dropped and for compensation to be paid to the families of more than a dozen students that local media reported took their own lives following the exam paper leak in May. Even as talks proceeded, the movement had already called for nationwide demonstrations on Friday over allegations of police brutality during Monday’s march on parliament.
Thousands of protesters remained gathered at the movement’s main site at Jantar Mantar in central Delhi, while scattered demonstrations were reported in West Bengal, Telangana, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, with students and activists holding placards demanding Pradhan’s resignation and boycotting classes in some areas, according to local media. Parliament was disrupted and suspended again on Friday as opposition lawmakers renewed the same demand, leaving the chamber without business for the entire week.
The CJP movement began as an online satire project involving only a few hundred young people before swelling into a movement with millions of online followers after the cancellation of a national medical school entrance test in May, when a leaked question paper affected roughly 2 million students. Tens of thousands of supporters defied a ban to march on parliament Monday, clashing with police who used tear gas and batons to push them back.
Analysts say the movement’s rapid growth reflects broader frustration among young Indians over job shortages and recurring exam leaks. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation shut down 17 stations in and around central Delhi on Friday, the third such large-scale closure this week, while the government extended a mobile internet shutdown in the area until midnight, according to industry sources. Authorities have also defended police surveillance at the protest site in court, arguing there is no right to privacy in a public space where a legitimate state interest exists.
The unrest echoes youth-led street movements that have toppled governments in neighbouring Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal in recent years. While India’s next national election isn’t due until April 2029, key state polls in Uttar Pradesh, Modi’s home state of Gujarat, and Punjab are scheduled for next year, and analysts say the current wave of anti-government sentiment could shape those contests.
