T
he agitation against the paper leaks of NEET-UG 2026 has erupted again at Jantar Mantar in Delhi this week, with Physics Wallah founder and CEO Alakh Pandey himself turning up for the protest. This happened while the Cockroach Janta Party was continuing their sit-in and pressing for one of their main demands—resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The video posted at the protest venue by Pandey saw him extend his support to the protesting students and call upon the government to listen to them. Pandey further explained that what was currently causing trouble in the protest venue was not related to the exam alone but pointed to an even bigger issue with the entire education and recruitment framework in the country.
Pandey then expanded the scope of his statements way past NEET to mention issues pertaining to admission into IITs, CBSE evaluation procedures, recruitment of SSC candidates, and the entire education system. In addition to this, Pandey extended personal support to the families of students who committed suicide after the paper leak incident and pledged to fund the entire education of children from such families. His call for the government was for it to recognize the protesting students as their own and provide them with a hearing.
As a popular edtech entrepreneur in India and a personality associated with NEET and JEE aspirants via his coaching platform Physics Wallah, this is one of the most significant contributions that the private education sector in India has made to this ongoing standoff so far.
Cockroach Janta Party finds its roots from May 2026, which was the time when it started as an online political satire movement formed by the digital communications strategist Abhijeet Dipke. A little joke of the movement with only a couple of hundreds of participants has turned into one of the important challenges from youth to the Modi government in the third tenure.
CJP organized a continuous sit-in protest at the Jantar Mantar since June 6 together with other organizations like Students Federation of India, All India Students Association and All India Students Federation with the demands for the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan and PM Narendra Modi for the NEET paper leak and malpractice during on-screen marking by CBSE.
A large number of people got attracted to Jantar Mantar due to the beginning of the indefinite hunger strike from the Ladakhi engineer and educationist Sonam Wangchuk on June 28 in support of the protest movement.
The situation took a drastic turn for the worse in the last week. Although Delhi Police had banned an upcoming rally to Parliament and the demonstration was also called illegal, thousands of protesters went ahead with the march and police resorted to tear gas and beatings to break up the crowd. According to the Delhi Police, nearly 180 people were injured in the clashes, out of which 118 were security forces members while 60 were the protestors themselves. Delhi Police also demolished the protest camp set up by the protestors at Jantar Mantar.
However, the protestors went ahead and re-established their camp the very next day. Many of the protestors claimed that they had been hurt during the raid. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said that the movement was not going to back off.
The repercussions even touched Parliament itself, where opposition parliamentarians, under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi from the Congress, protested the incident by assembling outside Parliament in black clothes and carrying placards protesting not only the police brutality but also the original leakage of the paper, leading to the eventual adjournment of parliamentary proceedings. Meanwhile, a protest by the Congress outside the residence of the Prime Minister resulted in the arrest of Gandhi himself along with his sister, Priyanka Vadra, and other opposition leaders.
Support rallies in solidarity have also started cropping up in other cities like Mumbai apart from Delhi, which also has its share of protests at the camp of CJP in the city.
Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan has so far steered clear from giving any public statements regarding the clashes that happened recently, except that he had called CJP dismissively on a TV show some time back. Pradhan and PM Modi are both ready to discuss the topic of examinations reforms generally, though nothing concrete has been done yet.
In case of the paper leakage crisis, the problem arose when the National Testing Agency canceled the NEET-UG 2026 examination because of the papers' alleged leakage, after which an FIR was lodged by the CBI under different Acts like Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Prevention of Corruption Act, and Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024.
