India's Cockroach Party supporters bang plates to call for education minister's resignation

NEW DELHI (AP) — Supporters of India’s viral Cockroach Janta Party banged steel plates with spoons in a protest Saturday to demand the resignation of the education minister over allegations of examination irregularities and repeated paper leaks.

The protest near Parliament in New Delhi by hundreds of students and young supporters of the nascent movement added to the pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government while also seeking wider support among Indians.

Authorities deployed heavy security and police used cameras and drones to monitor the protest.

Some carried placards and others banged plates, their noise cutting through the crowd protesting and demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

The banging of plates appeared to satirize Modi’s call for Indians to step onto balconies and rooftops and bang utensils in solidarity with front-line health workers during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, a political communications strategist and Boston University student, urged supporters on social media to bring plates and spoons on Saturday. “There is a virus called Dharmendra Pradhan that has to be removed,” he told the crowd, adding that the CJP was open to talks with the government if Pradhan stepped down.

"This is just the beginning. If Dharmendra Pradhan doesn’t resign or if no action is taken regarding this issue, this protest will not end here,” said a CJP supporter, Deepak Kumar.

The exam paper for a nationwide medical program was leaked last month through social media app Telegram. Authorities subsequently postponed the exam and also temporarily banned Telegram in India. The exam is scheduled to be held on Sunday. The government says the leak is under investigation.

“We study in poverty, live in poverty for 24 hours everyday, for years at length, and after that our (exam) papers get leaked. Will I not get angry at this?” said student Vicky Kumar.

The movement emerged in May, after Supreme Court Judge Surya Kant’s remarks comparing some unemployed youth to “cockroaches” triggered outrage. Supporters embraced the term as a symbol of resilience, helping the group amass more than 22 million followers on Instagram.

The movement’s message has since expanded to include concerns over unemployment, rising living costs and government accountability.

The CJP mixes self-deprecating humor with political criticism. Supporters jokingly call themselves unemployed and chronically online, while videos and memes mocking unemployment, corruption and political dysfunction have attracted millions of views. Many parody CJP accounts have also adopted the cockroach as a satirical political symbol.

Abhijeet Dipke, center, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party addresses supporters during a protest demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged examination irregularities and repeated paper leaks, in New Delhi, India, Saturday, June 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party addresses supporters during a protest demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged examination irregularities and repeated paper leaks in New Delhi, India, Saturday, June 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Indian security personnel stand guard during a protest demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged examination irregularities and repeated paper leaks, in New Delhi, India, Saturday, June 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party wear masks during a protest demonstration demanded the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged examination irregularities and repeated paper leaks in New Delhi, India, Saturday, June 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Abhijeet Dipke, center, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party gestures as he holds the photograph of Mahatma Gandhi and Bhim Rao Ambedkar during a protest demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged examination irregularities and repeated paper leaks in New Delhi, India, Saturday, June 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

LONDON (AP) — Nine people were in critical condition on Saturday after a collision between two passenger trains in central England the night before killed the driver of one of the locomotives, police said.

British Transport Police Chief Constable Lucy D'Orsi said more than 80 people were treated in hospitals after the crash late Friday afternoon, and 28 remained hospitalized a day later.

Buckingham Palace said King Charles III “is greatly saddened” by the crash. It said “his thoughts and sympathies are with the family of the deceased and with all those injured or affected by such a tragic incident."

Police and accident investigators are working to understand why a commuter train bound for London’s St. Pancras Station slammed into the back of another train headed for the same destination on Friday afternoon.

Photos and videos posted on social media showed dozens of people, some with bandages but also many who appeared uninjured, standing and sitting among emergency vehicles parked on a road parallel to the train tracks.

Peter Knapp, one of the passengers, described being thrown forward by the impact, then seeing fellow travelers with broken bones and bloody injuries.

“People were crying, screaming. People were so scared and confused,” he said. “I got up and I saw a lot of people who were unable to speak, had broken legs.”

Another passenger, Brett Byatt, told the BBC that only “three to four of us were uninjured in a full carriage.

“Everyone else had either a serious wound that was bleeding profusely, or a situation where they couldn’t stand, or couldn’t move their neck, or I saw a woman’s snapped leg,” he said.

In recent years Britain’s railways have had one of the world’s best safety records. One passenger was killed in a collision between two trains in Wales in October 2024. That was Britain’s first fatal crash involving multiple trains for more than a quarter of a century.

Emergency personnel work on a train on the tracks outside Bedford, England, after a train from Corby to London St. Pancras and another from Nottingham to London St. Pancras, collided on Friday June 19, 2026. (Jamie Lashmar/PA via AP)

A train on the tracks outside Bedford, England, Saturday June 20, 2026, after two trains traveling south to London St. Pancras station collided outside the town of Bedford on Friday (Chris Radburn/PA via AP)

Emergency personnel work on a train on the tracks outside Bedford, England, after a train from Corby to London St. Pancras and another from Nottingham to London St. Pancras, collided on Friday June 19, 2026. (Jamie Lashmar/PA via AP)

Emergency personnel work on a train on the tracks outside Bedford, England, after a train from Corby to London St. Pancras and another from Nottingham to London St. Pancras, collided on Friday June 19, 2026. (Jamie Lashmar/PA via AP)