For the first time, the Christian community in India expressed its solidarity with a non-political students’ agitation movement against alleged irregularities in the country’s top educational competitive testing system.

The youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) demanded the resignation of the country’s Minister of Education, Dharmendra Pradhan, holding him accountable for the massive testing irregularities.

Some prominent churches and ecumenical organizations responded clearly with statements supporting the protestors, saying that all students deserve a system founded on honesty, fairness, transparency, and equal opportunity.

Several major Roman Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, and Orthodox bodies publicly supported the students by being physically present at the protest site known as Jantar Mantar through prayer, visits, food, water, medical supplies, and volunteer service.

Background

The CJP is a satirical online movement turned national youth platform, not a registered political party, and has evolved into a powerful platform for young people to express their anxieties and dissent.

Protesters adopted the “cockroach” symbol after a senior judge from India’s apex court used the term pejoratively against unemployed youth, turning it into a badge of resilience.

The core anger stemmed from alleged widespread examination paper leaks across the country, canceled tests, and testing irregularities under the Ministry of Education.

Core Reasons for the Protests

Major national competitive exams, including the NEET-UG medical entrance exam, had their question papers leaked and sold on the black market before the tests took place.

Following the leaks, the government suddenly canceled or postponed several other critical national exams, such as the UGC-NET, throwing the futures of millions of students into limbo.

Meanwhile, at least 20 students died by suicide across India in the weeks following the cancellation and voiding of the national exams. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) linked the deaths directly to the exam irregularities and the intense fear of having to retake the competitive tests.

The Protests

The agitation lasted nearly five weeks, during which the protestors made no bones about their anger against the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government, which has been ruling the country since 2014, winning successive five-year terms.

The protest turned violent and many student protestors were grievously injured when police used brute force in a bid to quell the swelling crowds of agitators at the Jantar Mantar.

The CJP protests began mid-June and ended after a 37-day stretch on July 25 when the education minister tendered his resignation. The government of India promised reforms in the testing methods and compensation relief for the parents of those students who committed suicide due to intense pressure of re-writing exams.

Christian Organization Statements

The Church of North India’s Diocese of Delhi issued a statement calling for institutional reforms to protect the integrity of public examinations and restore public confidence.

The Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) also called for dialogue, restraint and accountability while expressing distress over injuries suffered by protesters and police personnel.

“The young people had been protesting for weeks over serious failures in the examination system and should have been heard before the situation reached confrontation,” the EFI statement said.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) strongly condemned what it described as disproportionate police action against peacefully protesting students.

The CBCI described the use of police force as a heartbreaking assault on the soul of our democracy.

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