Mumbai, India – Ayush Shimpi has had a rough month and a half.

On May 3, the 20-year-old student from the tribal district of Gadchiroli in western India’s Maharashtra state appeared for a national medical entrance exam, known as the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).

Shimpi had dropped out of formal education for two years to prepare for the exam, which determines one’s eligibility to join medical colleges as well as the schools they qualify for.

As he walked out of the examination hall, he heaved a sigh of relief. “I was out of the rat race,” he told Al Jazeera. “It was finally behind me.”

But nine days later, the government declared the NEET exam null and void over allegations of paper leaks and widespread irregularities. Shimpi’s world came crashing down, along with more than two million other aspirants battling for fewer than 130,000 spots in medical colleges.

After the cancellation of the exam – now rescheduled for June 21 – several students died by suicide, as public fury over the government’s failure to check frequent paper leaks grew across the country.

It was at such a moment of anger and hopelessness that Shimpi, while scrolling through his Instagram feed, discovered the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a satirical social media account that grew from a joke into a Gen Z movement in the world’s most populous country.

It began with the chief justice of India, Surya Kant, making a controversial remark during a court hearing last month.

“There are youngsters, like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment and don’t have any place in the profession,” the judge said. “Some of them become media, some of them become social media, some of them become RTI activists.”

Furious over the remark, Abhijeet Dipke, a 30-year-old Indian student in the US city of Boston, casually asked on social media: “What if all cockroaches came together?”

His call triggered a barrage of responses as millions of mainly young Indians embraced the term’s symbol of resilience.

Dipke had his task cut out. On May 16, he announced the launch of CJP, an evident jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He set up the satirical party’s website, describing its objectives and asking people to pledge membership.

Dipke had cut his teeth in politics by briefly working for the Aam Aadmi Party (Common Man’s Party, or AAP), a political group born out of a similar mobilisation against allegations of corruption against the then Indian National Congress-led government in 2012.

The AAP has since made significant electoral gains and governed the Indian capital region of Delhi for a decade before it was toppled by the BJP last year. It currently governs the northwestern state of Punjab.

‘Keeping democracy alive’

Following the stunning response to his initiative, Dipke returned to India on June 6 and reportedly went straight from the airport to New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar area, where the CJP had called for its debut public rally to demand the resignation of the federal education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, for allegedly failing to check paper leaks and other irregularities in key exams taken by the youth.

However, for a group that had gained global attention and a sensational social media following, the New Delhi rally ended up, as described by a participant, “a bit of an anti-climax”. Fewer than 2,000 people attended, according to various media reports.

Addressing the crowd on a brutally hot afternoon, Dipke urged Pradhan to resign by 5pm that day. When that did not happen, he gave the minister a seven-day deadline. After his speech, Dipke suffered a bout of heat exhaustion and had to be removed from the rally.

Despite having the police’s permission to protest until the evening, the New Delhi rally dissipated before 4pm.

“But this doesn’t end here. Dharmendra Pradhan has wronged an entire generation. If he is not removed or does not step down within the next seven days, we will be forced to continue our protest on the ground,” Dipke posted on X on June 7.

Journalist Saurav Das, a spokesman for the CJP, said the New Delhi demonstration made an impact.

“For an organisation born less than a month ago, we had pulled a decent amount of crowds,” Das told Al Jazeera.

“There are many challenges in mobilising people on the ground. We are not a registered organisation or a union. In order to have that kind of a structure, it will take some time. Once we have that, mobilising people will also be easier.”

Last week, the CJP held its second rally at a university in Pune, an educational hub in Maharashtra state, with the same demand: Pradhan must quit.

Pune is about 900km (560 miles) from Shimpi’s hometown – too far for him to attend.

“But it feels like my voice is being heard,” said Shimpi, who dreams of becoming a neurosurgeon. “The CJP is raising our issues and keeping democracy alive.”

Pune was the beginning of what the CJP calls a nationwide protest campaign, culminating with a return to New Delhi later this month if Pradhan does not resign. An online petition by the CJP to demand Pradhan’s sacking has been signed by more than 800,000 people so far.

Even the students who are not directly affected by the recent exam scandals joined the protest.

Agam Singh Gill, a 20-year-old law student in Pune, told Al Jazeera he could relate to the demands being made by the group.

“You can’t claim to be a ‘vishwaguru’ [world leader, as Modi’s supporters often call him] on the one hand and have such misalignment with your exams on the other,” he said. “I attended the protest because I care for my country and the people within my age group. You [government] are ruining the future of this generation, and subsequently the future of India.”

But things turned ugly on Monday at a CJP rally in Jaipur, the capital city of Rajasthan state, where Dipke was attacked by a man when he was being carried by his supporters on their shoulders. Two or three people pretending to be CJP’s followers came close and slapped Dipke multiple times. In social media videos, he was seen covering his face as others chased the attackers.

“Physical attacks are a sign of fear and cowardice. We will continue to raise our voices peacefully and will keep fighting this battle with peace and love,” he posted on X after the assault. “PS: Dharmendra Pradhan must resign!”

As the CJP gained popularity across the country, Modi, on June 13, posted on X that his government was “working towards youth-led development”.

“One of the defining features of the last 12 years has been the confidence with which India’s youth have pursued their aspirations,” the Indian leader wrote.

CJP spokesman Das said Modi’s statement was “the height of hypocrisy”.

“On the one hand, the prime minister claims to have done a lot for the youth, but on the other hand, he is completely mute about the number of student suicides and paper leaks,” he said.

“He hasn’t even uttered a word about the ongoing [youth] protests across the country.”

Meanwhile, in addition to New Delhi, Pune and Jaipur, the CJP has also held its rallies in Amritsar, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, with crowds numbering in the thousands, marking the group’s transition from online activism to old-fashioned street protests.

Those rallies saw slogans rejecting the BJP’s “Hindu-Muslim” politics, and a charge against a large section of India’s mainstream media, popularly referred to as “godi media” (“lap media” in Hindi), which has been accused of being overly supportive of the Modi government’s policies and fanning religious hatred.

Dipke himself said he would not engage with the “godi media” and would mainly rely on the power of social media to directly reach the youth across India. The CJP’s Instagram page gained more than 22 million followers in less than a month, and its reels from various protests across India crossed more than 400 million views on Monday.

However, Ashutosh, a senior journalist and AAP politician before parting ways with the party, agreed that the CJP was missing the support of the “legacy” media.

But he was also dismissive of the youth movement. “I am not sure if it can shake the government,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The fact that the Modi government allowed these protests to carry on suggests that they don’t see it as a threat. The movement needs a range of eminent personalities from civil society that add credibility,” said Ashutosh, who goes by his first name only.

But Das said the lack of coverage by the mainstream media was the least of their concerns. “The young generation lives on the internet,” he said. “We haven’t faced any problems in getting our message across.”

‘Exam manifesto’

In each of the cities it has held rallies so far or is planning one in the coming days, the CJP has roped in local civil society groups and student bodies to boost its movement.

“They have been helping us. They are our backbone. It has helped us bring together students across castes, class and gender,” Das told Al Jazeera.

A month since the group’s formation, Das said the feedback from the ground is that of hope. “Countless students and parents have reached out to us,” he said. “They are excited about the idea of a youth-led movement.”

At the Pune rally, the CJP revealed what it calls its “exam manifesto”. It has demanded compensation of 10,000 rupees per candidate in cases of a paper leak, which would cover travel and preparation costs; a transparent testing process; physical evaluation of answer sheets; and an independent audit of government contracts awarded to private agencies to conduct such exams.

Das said the CJP representatives plan to meet members of parliament from different parties with their exam manifesto in the coming days.

“The [monsoon] parliament session is coming up, and we will be pressing them to raise the issues over there and also hold discussions within their parties,” he told Al Jazeera. “That’s the kind of advocacy we want to do in the short term.”

‘Unique movement’

Columnist Ajaz Ashraf said a protest movement like the CJP is “supposed to shift the moral sense of society”.

“It tends to remind you of the morality that we have forgotten,” he told Al Jazeera. “The purpose of this movement is to express dissent.”

However, according to Ashraf, the CJP’s critics were projecting their own unrealistic expectations onto the newly formed group.

“The CJP reflects the angst among young people, and even older generations, over educational corruption, unemployment and rising living costs,” he said. “The turnout [in rallies] may not be huge, but everybody came of their own volition despite fear of retribution from the authorities. For a protest to bring political change, the opposition parties need to ride that wave and take it to another level.”

Ashraf said the Indian National Congress, the main opposition party in India, has not done that.

“The Congress believes it should be the only spokesperson for all the discontent in society,” he said. “There is also a bit of heartburn that their leaders haven’t quite got the traction from youth that the CJP has. It is surreal to be paranoid of an outfit that isn’t a political threat.”

Al Jazeera reached out to a Congress leader for their reaction to the criticism, but the person said the party does not want to officially comment on it.

Journalist and author Saba Naqvi said in an age when “reel life” has become real life to a large extent, the CJP is “a unique movement”. She said the movement deserves credit for tapping into a demography that largely prefers to stay apolitical.

“The people who hate discussing politics in general are curious about the CJP and want to talk about it,” Naqvi told Al Jazeera. “That’s an important achievement. It has helped many people overcome their fear of speaking out.”

That includes 17-year-old Aarav Dwivedi, who is preparing for his medical entrance exam.

Dwivedi attended a student protest over paper leaks on Friday in the northern city of Lucknow, where Dipke was also invited by the organisers.

“My parents advised me against it. I also thought the police would attack the congregation. But I went because a lot of people I know had gone,” he told Al Jazeera. “How long will this corruption continue?”

Dwivedi said it was “demoralising to be preparing for a future ridden with irregularities”.

“It feels like there is no point in studying,” he said. “Your hope is shattered. But it was motivating to see people turn up for the protests.”

Dwivedi, who had been following the CJP’s updates on social media, initially thought the group would remain confined to online criticism. “It was good to see them hit the streets.”