A protest group called the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) stopped its street marches in New Delhi on July 21, 2026. The decision came one day after police fired tear gas and beat protesters with batons to stop them from marching on Parliament. The movement says at least 150 demonstrators were hurt.

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke announced the halt at a news conference on Tuesday. He said the movement would not march again because "the police will hurt the youth again" Al Jazeera. Delhi police gave a different count: nearly 180 people injured in total, including 60 protesters and 118 police and security personnel. They also said 70 protesters were detained. Videos of the July 20 clashes shared online show police attacking protesters. No footage has surfaced showing protesters being violent.

The CJP, also called the "cockroach movement," started as a joke before turning into a serious youth-led campaign AP News. Its main demand is the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The movement began after someone leaked an exam paper, forcing 2.2 million aspiring doctors to retake their medical entrance test. At least 12 students reportedly died by suicide in connection with the scandal. The CJP also wants compensation of 10 million rupees (about $104,000) for each bereaved family.

On July 20, tens of thousands of people gathered in New Delhi even though police had banned the march to Parliament Reuters. Large numbers of police and paramilitary forces were deployed across the city to stop them. Protesters chanted and waved the Indian flag. The CJP had warned beforehand that infiltrators might try to cause trouble and discredit the protest DW. Police said the march had not been approved.

By Tuesday morning, about 200 protesters remained at the CJP's protest site at Jantar Mantar, a landmark in central New Delhi. CJP leader Ashutosh Ranka struck a defiant tone: "We won't stop. Pradhan has to be sacked." Dipke's decision to halt the marches and Ranka's refusal to back down reveal a split within the movement over what to do next.

Veteran activist Sonam Wangchuk, 59, had been on a hunger strike for three weeks in support of the CJP. Police then seized him and put him in a hospital against his will. On July 21, the Delhi High Court ruled that Wangchuk could be moved from a government hospital to a private one, after his wife told the court he was being held illegally. The fact that a court had to step in to get him transferred raises questions about how authorities treated a protester using a peaceful form of dissent.

The crackdown quickly drew political reactions. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, his sister Priyanka Gandhi, and members of the Indian National Congress party protested outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home on July 21. Rahul Gandhi wrote on X: "We have marched to PM Modi's house to demand answers from him for the brutalities against young students yesterday" Al Jazeera. Amnesty International said late on July 20 that the police response showed "how peaceful dissent is being suppressed in India." Protester Sahil Singh from Uttar Pradesh told Reuters: "They beat us black and blue, and they damaged our protest site. We want accountability to be set with Pradhan's resignation."

The broader context here is a growing clash between young people taking to the streets and a government willing to use force against protests that have not been officially approved. The CJP's path from a satirical group to one that can draw tens of thousands of people shows how a single failure, the leaked exam paper and the lives it cost, can turn scattered public anger into organised political action. The suspension of marches removes the immediate source of conflict but does nothing about the demands behind it. The opposition Congress party has taken up the issue, international groups like Amnesty are speaking out, and the courts are now involved. Pressure on the Modi government and on Education Minister Pradhan is coming from several directions at once: the streets, parliament, the legal system, and outside scrutiny. Whether the CJP can keep going without its street marches, or whether the pause is only temporary, depends on two things: whether its leaders can settle the disagreement between Dipke and Ranka, and whether the government offers any concessions on exam reform or ministerial accountability.