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New Delhi, India – There was silence at Jantar Mantar and the road connecting Parliament in central New Delhi at midnight, hours after the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) called off its agitation after the resignation of Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Thousands of students and youth protesters occupied a protest site near India’s Parliament, demanding reforms to education, bringing one of the biggest challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing government.
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Pradhan’s resignation is seen as a major setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government and has further tarnished Modi’s powerful image, experts told Al Jazeera.
After the roads were cleared, the authorities moved in with paint rollers and buckets, and removed the remains of Gen Z terrorists from the walls around Jantar Mantar.
In his closing remarks at the venue on Saturday, Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the CJP, said: “This is not the end. We will meet again soon.”
So, what’s next for India’s youth activists?
What are the demands of the protesters?
While some of the protest’s demands have been raised and frayed over the past few weeks, two main demands have remained: Pradhan’s resignation and compensation for the families of students who died in suicides over the paper leak and the cancellation of exams that affected millions of students in India.
Fees
At a joint press conference on Saturday, where CJP spokesmen sat next to chief ministers, the government agreed to provide compensation, “whatever is possible” as per the rules.
The protesters are demanding 10 million dollars (about $105,000) each for 20 such families.
Criminal cases
After the police cracked down on the protests that went to Parliament on July 20, injuring more than 100 people, the CJP’s movement gained support from across the country.
The CJP then added two more: no charge against any protester or agitator; and an apology from the Delhi Police and the Rapid Action Force, an army unit, for the breach.
The government assured the CJP that no cases would be filed against the protesters in the BJP-ruled districts and that all existing cases would be withdrawn.
However, there have been many arrests in several BJP-ruled districts in eastern India.
At least 11 people, 10 of them Muslims, have been arrested and seven charged in West Bengal, according to media reports. In the northeastern Indian state of Assam, six people, most of them Muslims, have been arrested for trying to protest in connection with the Jantar Mantar protests. In Bihar, three protesters were injured after police opened fire on protesters on Saturday.
The police should apologize
There was no word on the CJP’s demand for a public apology from the government forces as state ministers and CJP leaders joined hands to end the protests.
However, in the days that followed the increase in police force on July 20, the CJP leaders repeatedly said that they would “bring all the policemen to court for beating the students like bullets”, after identifying them from the video of the violation, recorded by the opposition.
Where does the Cockroach community go from here?
The CJP has been avoiding a clear answer on how the group intends to shape its future course.
The group came to light in May this year after Dipke openly asked on X: “What if all the cockroaches came together?” It made sense to India’s chief justice who said that unemployed youth were like “cockroaches” and “vermin”.
Experts point to Dipke and Dalits – a group of formerly “untouchables” who have been persecuted throughout India’s history – as an important step to follow in the coming months.
After launching protests against the removal of the education minister, CJP leaders told protesters in New Delhi they would “meet again soon”.
The group’s spokesperson said that at the moment there is no clarity as to whether the group wants to participate in electoral politics.
“We are resting and gathering our next steps,” Sudhir Sangwan, a member of the CJP, told Al Jazeera on Sunday. “The idea going forward is to put one story behind us at a time. We want to move this team forward.”
CJP spokesperson Vaishnavi Gaur said the group will continue education as its main focus. “We will be broad in our discussions.”
He said that the team would meet with civilians and civilians to understand the key issues and assess their solutions. “We want to have events like a town,” he told Al Jazeera. “This is a difficult process to create for ourselves.”
The 29-year-old said the Cockroach group was less than two months old, and “none of us had enough time to develop a plan and schedule”.
“But we know this is not the end of it,” he said. “Turning the CJP into a political party is a big decision. We want to expand our capacity and reduce it gradually.”
Asim Ali, a New Delhi-based political analyst, said the CJP “has never shown their way, and maybe that’s because they don’t have one”.
“These leaders are not political and instead connect with the people. I don’t see any conflict (with the government) coming soon,” he told Al Jazeera.
What are the Indian critics saying?
Rahul Gandhi, the leader of India’s opposition party, the Indian National Congress, says his party will pressure Modi to apologize for the use of force against students protesting on July 20 in New Delhi at the Parliament.
In a social media post, he called for “action against those responsible for abusing (children) students”.
Opposition parties also targeted Home Minister Amit Shah, a close aide of Modi who heads the New Delhi police force. They also called for the resignation of both leaders.
“Our students wanted a fair and proper education system. Instead, the security forces attacked them with unlimited force, including lethal weapons and tear gas,” Gandhi wrote in a letter to Shah on Sunday.
On Saturday, Gandhi spoke to Neha Bora, a doctoral student and president of the All India Students Association (AISA), the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist).
He sat on a hunger strike with activist Sonam Wangchuk at Jantar Mantar, where he received widespread attention for his scathing speech.
Bora said Pradhan’s transfer to another ministry “will be acceptable”.
“There should also be accountability for the violence that took place on (July) 20. The commissioner of police (Delhi) and the home minister should also be accountable.”
Akhilesh Yadav, an MP from the opposition Samajwadi Party, said Pradhan’s resignation was a “huge victory for the new generation” and praised youth activists for taking on the Modi government.
“People of all parties should learn from this that in the future the examinations should be strengthened so that no papers are passed and the ways to find jobs and jobs should be opened to the youth,” he said.
