India’s viral youth movement, which started as an online joke, has now spilled onto the streets of India’s capital, New Delhi. The movement, led by Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the satirical Cockroach Janta Party, is demanding the resignation of the country’s education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, over a national exam system mired in scandal.

Protests and Demands

The protests, which began on Saturday, have seen hundreds of people gather at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar monument, carrying posters, shouting slogans, and singing. The protesters have also been seen offering roses to police officers on duty and carrying the Indian flag and copies of the constitution.

Dipke, a 30-year-old Boston University graduate, has been camped out at the protest site, leading the crowd and demanding that the education minister take responsibility for the exam system’s failures. The system has been plagued by exam paper leaks and technical failures, placing a crushing burden on students and financial strain on families.

The movement has also commemorated the students who have died by suicide due to the immense pressure of the exams, with protesters lighting candles in their memory. Dipke has called for the education minister to resign, saying that the system has failed the students and that the minister is not taking moral responsibility for the failures.

Government Response

The education minister has referred to the Cockroach Janta Party as the ‘B-team of terror groups,’ a remark that Dipke has called ‘ridiculous.’ Dipke has insisted that his group is seeking justice for students, especially those who have died by suicide.

The authorities have implemented heavy security measures outside venues for the medical exam’s re-sit, and have enlisted military aircraft to transport the test papers. The protest is ongoing, with a steady stream of volunteers keeping the camp running and arriving daily with food, drinking water, and other essentials.

Original reporting: KRDO (Colorado Springs metro) — read the source article.