In defiance of a police ban, thousands of members of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a youth-led protest movement seeking employment and education reforms, attempted to march on parliament to demand the resignation of India’s education minister.
Tear gas was used by cane-wielding police to scatter crowds in central Delhi. A number of protesters claimed that the cane charges had hurt them. The police remained silent. According to reports, some members of the audience flung stones.
The march came after weeks of demonstrations against purported exam paper leaks and claims of a larger crisis in the educational system. In recent years, the movement has grown to become one of the most prominent manifestations of public disapproval of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After police forcibly admitted protester Sonam Wangchuk to the hospital on the twenty-first day of a hunger strike in favor of the campaign, it gained new impetus over the weekend. According to his wife, he is still fasting. Wangchuk asked the doctors on Monday to release him so he could participate in the march, but he was turned down.
The campaign got its name from a statement made by India’s chief justice, who came under fire for comparing groups of young people without jobs to “cockroaches” during a court proceeding.
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