India's Minister of Education Resigned Following Youth Protests
India's Minister of Education, Dharmendra Pradhan, has resigned amid youth protests that have spread across the country following a scandal involving a competitive university entrance exam. Members of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) considered the minister’s resignation one of their key demands, according to Deutsche Welle.
On Saturday, thousands of protesters gathered in central New Delhi, particularly near the Jantar Mantar site. After Pradhan’s resignation was announced, protesters left satirical posters on the walls mocking the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, and graffiti on the sidewalks targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Protesters also shared videos on Instagram from various cities across India, using memes, sarcastic slogans, and posters. The movement’s name refers to a casual remark by the head of India’s judiciary, who called unemployed young people “cockroaches,” and also plays on the name of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
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The protests began following a scandal in May surrounding the entrance exam. A few days before Saturday’s demonstration, several people were injured during clashes with police officers armed with batons. Law enforcement also used tear gas.
Karan Azad, a 24-year-old law student, told DW that humor has become a way for his generation to cope with pain, disappointment, and helplessness. Content creator Arun Singh linked the protesters’ activism to meme culture, which, he said, is the natural language of communication for the younger generation.
According to scholar and writer Ananya Vajpey, satirical posters helped students gain public sympathy and made the protest seem less threatening to society. She believes that the harsh crackdown on the protesters sparked a negative reaction because the participants were young people.
