They Came, They Demanded, They Scurried Away

The Antennae Gazette

New Delhi, Monday, June 9, 2026                                                            Price: One Stale Crumb    

They Came, They Demanded, They Scurried Away

                                                                         EDITORIAL

From online to offline, finally. The Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) arrived in numbers that defied all attempts at accurate counting. They came from drains and drainage committees, from under refrigerators and behind skirting boards, from the darkest corners of five-star kitchens and the rustling depths of government canteens.

They came, as they always do, when no one was quite looking.

Their demands defied counting though; important among them: - an immediate end to "pesticide imperialism," the right to unimpeded access to all public granaries, constitutional recognition of nocturnal labour, a formal apology from every hotel that has ever deployed a can of Hit, and — most controversially — reserved seating in the Lok Sabha canteen.

Do not dismiss these demands lightly. The cockroach, after all, has outlasted the dinosaurs, several empires, and at least four restructurings of the Planning Commission.

Chief among them: an immediate end to "pesticide imperialism," the right to unimpeded access to all public granaries, constitutional recognition of nocturnal labour, a formal apology from every hotel that has ever deployed a can of Hit, and — most controversially — reserved seating in the Lok Sabha canteen. One cannot dismiss these demands lightly. The cockroach, after all, has outlasted the dinosaurs, several empires, and at least four restructurings of the Planning Commission.

The gathering dispersed as all great protests eventually must — quietly, quickly, and in many directions at once, slipping into the crevices of the city's indifference. The Delhi Police, to their credit, made no lathi charges. Whether this was on account of progressive restraint or simple bafflement is a question this editorial will not venture to answer.

Jokes apart

The sparse gathering at Jantar Mantar of a toddling political entity, CJP, went off without a fuss. The ‘flop’ show, it might be interesting to note, is reminiscent of Satyajit Ray’s famous brainwashing chamber ‘Jantar Mantar’ in the 1980 movie Hirak Rajar Deshe, the second installment in the classic Bengali fantasy series.

Imagine a group of students simply crying hoarse and repeating a single-word-anthem ‘Ajadi’ at Jantar Mantar; ‘Ajadi’ from what?

Even if we accept, for the sake of argument, ‘Ajadi’ from the NEET imbroglio, the rest of demands were far from academic. Who had brainwashed them into demanding something not even remotely connected to academics and education?

Remember the urban unrest of the Naxalbari movement in the late 1960s and early 70s when a batch of bright, promising and scholarly youth had resorted to violent uprising against the State, advocating for armed insurrection and annihilation of class enemies?

The question that crops up here again is that of young minds who could easily be led to astray.

How many of the students who had assembled at Jantar Mantar on June 6 last were aware of the fact that leaks of state board examinations have historically plagued various states of India?

The states include Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The latter had also attained notoriety for widespread and unprecedented corruption in Primary and Secondary Teachers, Group C & D clerk recruitment examinations among others.

Corrupt Officials: CBI Inquiry

So, if a few diehard corrupt officials are doggedly determined to ruin the future of hundreds and thousands of students across the country in a such crucial all India Entrance examination as NEET, this is not only unfortunate, but smacks of a deep-rooted conspiracy to backstab the very base of the academic foundation of the county.

There is something more than meets the eye at the assembly at Jantar Mantar. Some disturbing questions have emerged following a careful scrutiny of the number of followers of CJP at various web portals.

One such example will be suffice; an obscure part of Kansas City of the US is supposed to be having a CJP followers’ base exceeding nearly 6.5 lakh; whereas the entire population in that part is barely between 1.6 and 1.7 lakh. Failed mathematical jugglery?

A CBI inquiry that followed the NEET scam has already succeeded in pinning the culprits and they are no relatives or supporters of union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Yes, loopholes in the system did exist and they need to be properly and immediately fixed to stymie their recurrence in future. Because such occurrences could leave the student community extremely fidgety and won’t augur well for the nation.

Last but not the least, the thread of this sudden emergence of CJP which claims to have the largest following from Pakistan, is allegedly intertwined with certain political forces inside India that are portrayed as collectively amplifying such narratives as “democracy is under threat” and “minorities are in danger.”

For decades, this shadow war—allegedly sustained through Western funding and influence—had been allowed to operate unchecked in India. Fortunately though, the era when foreign powers could shape India’s policies from behind the scenes, is long over.