ISLAMABAD: Indian authorities placed farmer union leaders from three states under house arrest Sunday to stop them from joining a youth-led protest movement in New Delhi that has rattled the government and drawn international attention.
Security forces detained leaders from Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh before they could travel to join the Cockroach Janta Party's sit-in at Jantar Mantar, the capital's designated protest ground, according to the Times of India. The detentions came as the movement prepared to launch its "Pradhan Go Back" campaign demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
How a slur became a movement
On May 15, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant compared unemployed youth on social media to "cockroaches" and "parasites of society" during a Supreme Court hearing, according to Al Jazeera. He later said the remark targeted lawyers practicing with fraudulent degrees, not young people broadly.
The clarification did not stick.
The following day, Abhijeet Dipke, a public relations graduate from Boston University and former Aam Aadmi Party communications strategist, launched the satirical Cockroach Janta Party, according to a deep-dive investigation by BBC. Its Instagram page reached nearly 18 million followers in under a week.
The CJP held its first protest at Jantar Mantar on June 6, reported Al Jazeera. By June 20, demonstrators had built a memorial shrine for 17 students who died by suicide amid the scandal-hit NEET-UG medical entrance examination, which was plagued by paper leaks, according to Live Mint.
The party's five demands, listed on its official website, target what it calls structural failures of the Indian state:
1. a ban on retiring Supreme Court judges taking government or parliamentary seats
2. criminal penalties for unauthorized deletion of voter registrations
3. 50% women's representation in Indian parliament and cabinet
4. the cancellation of broadcasting licenses held by media groups owned by Reliance and Adani
5. a 20-year bar on any legislator who switches parties from contesting elections
The farmer connection
Dipke appealed publicly to farmer unions, arguing students had backed farmers during the 2020-2021 protests that forced the repeal of three agricultural deregulation laws. The Bharatiya Kisan Union and the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) responded with formal support, according to the Deccan Herald.
The alliance reflects long-standing rural distress. More than 386,000 people in India's farming sector died by suicide between 1995 and 2021, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
The NCRB's 2024 report recorded 10,546 such deaths. Maharashtra alone accounted for 37.6% of the national total, driven by debt among cotton and sugarcane farmers.
Farmer unions have separately demanded a legally binding minimum crop price guarantee since 2022, when they rejected a government review panel as biased toward pro-reform interests, according to the Times of India.
State response
The government's reaction has been brutal. The Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology blocked the CJP's account on X under Section 69(A) of the Information Technology Act, citing national security, according to The Hindu. Dipke has challenged the order in the Delhi High Court.
Education Minister Pradhan called the CJP a "B-team of terrorists," reported Hindustan Times. Dipke responded that the minister had "the blood of 17 students on his hands."
Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi demanded a public apology, according to Hindustan Times.
Delhi Police declared the protest's overnight extension illegal and temporarily cut access to electricity, food, and water at the site, according to Metro Vaartha, a digital outlet that has extensively tracked the Cockroach Janta Party.
Activists responded by launching a "Diaper Donation Drive," writing resignation demands on diapers addressed to the Ministry of Education, reported Live Mint.
