Nineteen-year-old Dhammapal Gavai has spent the past year preparing for the Union Public Service Commission exams for jobs in the civil services and just started college in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. Yet, he and two fellow students travelled 250 km to the Savitribai Phule Pune University to attend the Cockroach Janta Party’s protest on the evening of June 11.

“I may be preparing for UPSC, but these are students’ issues,” Gavai said. “I am a student so I am here to join them.”

A satirical movement, the Cockroach Janta Party quickly grew in popularity online amid the back-to-back fiascos hurting students in recent months: first, the cancellation of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for admission to medical undergraduate courses after concerns that a paper had leaked and then the technical errors by the Central Board of Secondary Education in evaluating Class 12 board exam papers.

Gavai said that young people feel like they have wasted their lives studying. Discussing the NEET paper leak, he said, students had been preparing to become doctors so that they could help cure people. “Instead, people stole the paper to pass,” said Gavai. “Then what is the future?”

The Cockroach Janta Party held its first rally in Delhi on May 16. While it was clear...

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