Over eight thousand students have signed a petition demanding Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation, says CJP in 2nd Print

More than eight thousand students have signed a petition on the CJP website demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) said in an official statement.

“Over eight million students have signed a petition on the CJP website demanding the resignation of the education minister. The petition has not received any official response. The CJP has also appealed to the Delhi Police to take note of the hate and violence videos circulating online against the protesters and take immediate steps to prevent the spread of misinformation before June 6,” an official release said.

The CJP also urged the Delhi Police to deal with hate and violence-related videos being circulated online against protesters and called for swift action to curb misinformation before June 6, ANI reported.

Here is what the CJP claimed

The CJP said on Thursday that the reported exposure of data of JEE (Advanced) 2026 candidates due to a cloud storage configuration problem on the result portal shows how “incompetent” people were running the country’s education system and digital infrastructure.

Leaders of the campaign, which started on social media and took on a life of its own, also appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately remove Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, saying he had failed to ensure accountability in the education sector.

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At a press conference here, CJP leaders said the incident raised fresh concerns about the security of student data and the government’s handling of examination systems.

CJP spokesman Ashutosh Ranka, an IIT Kanpur and London School of Economics graduate who was appointed campaign spokesman on Wednesday, said the release of candidate information reflected the poor state of cyber security.

“The names, phone numbers and pictures of nearly two million students have been exposed. In a country that has produced top technology companies around the world, the education minister and the government are so incompetent that they are unable to operate basic systems securely,” Ranka said.

“The Education Minister is totally incompetent. He has run the education system into the ground. We appeal to the Prime Minister to fire Dharmendra Pradhan immediately. This is about the future of our students and there is a lot at stake,” he added.

He also said that public institutions require individuals with scientific temperament and technical aptitude.

Questioning the response of IIT Roorkee, which conducted the exam this year as its nodal body, Ranka said the institute’s claim that the exposed data was in a “read-only” format did not diminish the seriousness of the issue.

“IIT Roorkee said the data was read-only. Is this a joke? You say it can be read but not edited. One core IIT portal cannot be run securely. Sixteen, 17 and 18-year-olds discover vulnerabilities and alert CERT. This shows the level of competence of the people running the system,” he said.

On Tuesday, IIT Roorkee acknowledged a cloud storage configuration issue associated with the JEE (Advanced) 2026 result portal after a teenage cybersecurity researcher reported that candidates’ records and admit card documents were accessed without authentication.

The institute said remedial action was being taken on a priority basis and insisted the exposed data was in read-only mode, ruling out any possibility of altering the records.

Ranka demanded that the government release details of all data breach incidents and cyber security lapses under its control.

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“We want to know where this country’s data has landed and who has access to it. Details of all such breaches, especially those that could affect national security, should be made public,” he said.

Seeking to dispel speculation that the CJP’s proposed June 6 agitation could turn violent, Ranka reiterated his commitment to a peaceful protest.

“Rumours of violence are spreading. Cockroach Janata Party calls for peaceful and democratic protests in accordance with law and order. We appeal to people to avoid violence,” he said.

The press conference followed the group’s first media interaction a day earlier at India’s Constitution Club, where it said it was willing to engage in discussions with both the government and the opposition on its demands, while still pressing for Pradhan’s resignation.

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CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, who is currently studying in the United States, is expected to arrive in Delhi on June 6. He is likely to seek permission to stage a protest at Jantar Mantar. The organization also said climate activist Sonam Wangchuk would attend the planned demonstration.

The CJP traces its origins to the controversy sparked by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant’s remarks last month when he referred to certain individuals as “cockroaches” and “parasites” during a court hearing.

The remarks sparked a backlash on social media, with CJP founder Dipke and his supporters appropriating the term “cockroach” as a political symbol, launching what began as an online youth movement before evolving into an organized campaign.