Inside India’s Gen Z Cockroach Protests That Forced The Education Minister To Resign
According to one recent study, almost 40% of India’s graduates below 25 are unemployed.
What is India’s cockroach party and how did an online meme turn into the biggest anti-government protest in the country?
It all started when reports emerged that questions from the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test known as the NEET-UG exam, which nearly two million students take each year to compete for about only 130,000 seats in India's medical colleges, had been leaked, including claims about a “guess paper” that matched parts of the actual test.
The exam, which was held on May 3, is important because the score helps decide which medical college students can enter and would affect their ability to get a job and move out of poverty in some cases.
According to one recent study, almost 40% of India’s graduates below 25 are unemployed.
On May 12, authorities cancelled the test after investigators found evidence that some questions had been circulated before the test and scheduled a rexam on June 21.
The exam cancellation sparked anger across the country, as more than 2.27 million students had appeared for the test across 551 cities before it was scrapped, according to the Hindustan Times.
Local media reported that at least a dozen students died by suicide after learning they'd have to redo an exam some had spent years, and their families a lot of money, preparing for.
India's Chief Justice Surya Kant calling unemployed young people "parasites" and compared them to "cockroaches" during a court hearing on May 15.
He later said he was misquoted, but it was too late.
In response, young people took to social media to express their anger, with some even making memes.
30-year-old Abhijeet Dipke, an Indian national who recently graduated from university in the US, then jokingly put out a call on social media: “What if all cockroaches came together?”
His post got overwhelming replies from young indians, prompting Dipke to launch a website and social media accounts for a satirical “Cockroach Janta party” (CJP), a poke at Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janta party (BJP) taking aim at the government, and a tagline: “A political party for the people the system forgot to count.”, according to the Guardian.
Within two weeks, the CJP’s Instagram page had more than 22 million followers, far overtaking the BJP.
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