More Than 50 Hurt, 100 Detained as Delhi Police Smash the Cockroach Janta Party's Parliament March

The protest, called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and its founder Abhijeet Dipke, was aimed at Parliament and at one man: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, whom the demonstrators want gone over NEET exam irregularities and paper leaks. When thousands pushed past the first line of barricades near Parliament Street and Sansad Marg, police moved in with batons and lobbed tear gas canisters, including at the protesters' second flashpoint near Shastri Bhawan.⁠2⁠3⁠4⁠5⁠10⁠11

The Indian Express described the march as one in which protesters "stormed the heart of Delhi," only to be met with lathis and tear gas. The Hindu reported "scores hospitalised with fractures, head and eye injuries."⁠2⁠3 The Times of India catalogued a day that included lathi-charge, tear gas, stone-pelting, metro shutdowns and security intensified across central Delhi.⁠5

Police said the situation was tense and that officers had "dispersed professionally" — but more people kept arriving, The Print reported from the front lines. Thousands breached barricades to reach near Parliament; tear gas shells were lobbed to push them back.⁠8 The Wire, reporting from near Jantar Mantar, said internet access had been cut off in the protest zone and described the use of force as extraordinary.⁠9

By the evening's accounting, more than 50 police personnel and protesters were injured, and more than 100 people had been detained, according to the Economic Times.⁠7 Scroll.in published footage of young protesters being beaten back with batons as tear gas shells arced over them.⁠10

The fasting face of the movement, Sonam Wangchuk, was not in the streets when the batons came down. He has been on hunger strike for weeks in support of the CJP's demands over the NEET exam irregularities. After Monday's crackdown, Wangchuk cited "brutality" and said he would continue his fast until MPs met "youth leaders" or him.⁠3

Later in the day, CJP leaders and Dipke returned to the original protest camp at Jantar Mantar — the dismantled site the group had set out from in the morning — and reclaimed it as the party waited for the Centre's formal response to its demands.⁠6 CJP spokespersons Sourav Das and Ashutosh Ranka headed into talks with Union Minister J.P. Nadda; CJP leaders later confirmed the meeting had taken place and reiterated the demand for Pradhan's removal.⁠8⁠3

Politicians had already lined up behind the students before Monday's march. Uddhav Thackeray and Naveen Patnaik were among those who voiced support a day earlier.⁠9

The reporting confirms the scale of the crackdown — the injuries, the detentions, the breached barricades, the tear gas, the lathis. It does not confirm several of the specific claims circulating alongside Monday's footage, including the reported Section 163 order across New Delhi, the exact number of metro stations closed, a reported forcible hospitalisation of Wangchuk, or a Delhi High Court petition by his wife challenging that admission. The wire reporting covers Wangchuk's continuation of his fast and his "brutality" statement, but does not include the specific three conditions for ending his strike that have been attributed to him in some accounts.⁠2⁠3

It is also worth pinning one name down. Some accounts have rendered the CJP founder as "BJ Dipkey." The reporting names him as Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the Cockroach Janta Party.⁠2⁠6

The CJP submitted its demands to the Centre on Monday and said the protest would continue.⁠2 With Dipke and other leaders back at a reclaimed Jantar Mantar camp, and Wangchuk's fast still running, the movement has a stage to argue from. The unanswered question is whether the government's reported openness to dialogue translates into movement on the central demand — Pradhan's resignation and an inquiry into the NEET irregularities — or whether the crackdown succeeds in draining the streets before that conversation happens.