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‘8 lakh signed petition, 1 crore affected’: CJP chief Dipke cites numbers ahead of protest to seek minister resignation
If Dharmendra Pradhan fails to resign, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said, it would imply that there is no accountability left in India.
Online activist outfit Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke on Monday said he will return to India on June 6 and hold a protest offline, to demand the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over recent mess-ups in several examinations across the country, including NEET, CBSE, SSC and CUET.
He said that his party's petition for Pradhan's resignation has the backing of 8 lakh people.
Dipke posted a video message on CJP's official X handle, announcing his return to New Delhi.
"I am coming back to my country, my home, India, to ask for the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. You have been seeing for so many days that we are raising our voice on social media that because of the paper leak, the children who committed suicide and the hard work of lakhs of students that has been wasted — for that, Dharmendra Pradhan should resign," Dipke said.
‘8 lakh signs on CJP petition'
The CJP had created an online petition on its website, inviting signatures to support the demand for Pradhan's resignation.
Dipke said that 8 lakh young persons have signed the petition, citing that more than 1 crore students were overall affected by the disruptions in the competitive exams. "Crores of people have supported this demand on social media as well. And not just that, there are protests taking place in many places in the country like Lucknow, Jaipur, Maharashtra, Delhi, but still, they (government) are not getting affected," Dipke stated.
"Today, NEET's 22 lakh students, CBSE's 17 lakh students, CUET's 16 lakh students and SSCGD's 40 lakh students, there are more than 1 crore students whose lives have been mocked by the system," he added.
Dipke said that due to these tensions, students are “very anxious and worried about their future.”
If Pradhan fails to resign, Dipke said, it would imply that there is no accountability left in India. He said it appeared as if the system could make as many mistakes without consequences, leaving the students to bear the brunt.
"How long will this go on? That's why the time has come. We all have to come together and walk on the path of India's constitution and peacefully raise our voice and demand the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan. If we all raise our voice together, then he will have to listen to us," Dipke affirmed.
He invited CJP supporters to meet him at the Delhi airport on the morning of June 6, saying that together, they would go to the Parliament Street Police Station and obtain permission for a peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar.
CJP's 'petition to sack' Pradhan
The Cockroach Janta Party's "petition to sack the education minister" has so far been signed by 7,94,518 people, according to the online movement's website. The petition alleges that the education system "is compromised".
"From the tragic loss of students who died by suicide, to the millions of futures broken by a decade of paper leaks, this failure cannot go ignored. There must be consequences. Sign below to demand the immediate removal of the Education Minister," the petition reads.
Chaos, mess-ups in competitive exams
The central government has increasingly been facing flak from both students and opposition parties after competitive exams, including the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), and the Staff Selection Commission GD Constable Exam (SSC-GD) examinations, faced multiple disruptions.
First, the NEET-UG 2026 exams, held on May 3, 2026, were cancelled by the National Testing Agency (NTA) after an alleged nationwide paper leak. While the Central Bureau of Investigation is probing the matter, the NTA has rescheduled the examinations for June 21.
Then the CBSE Class 12 board exams were mired in a series of mess-ups. Students had to endlessly wait for the results as the education board kept sharing 'coming soon' updates, with no results in sight. Later, CBSE's On-Screen Marking (OSM) portal created tensions for students, as several claimed that the evaluated answer sheets uploaded to the site were not theirs. One such student, who raised the matter on X, got massively trolled and was even tagged a 'Pakistani'. However, CBSE later admitted to the answer sheet mix-up.
Soon after, a 19-year-old 'ethical hacker' claimed to have found massive irregularities and loopholes in the OSM portal. Another 17-year-old raised flags after 'examining' the OSM contract.
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Days after the 19-year-old's allegations, the CBSE said on Sunday that it is "closely monitoring the situation" with a team of cybersecurity experts. It said that the identified vulnerabilities of the OSM portal had been contained, adding that other "exploitable weaknesses" were being ruled out.
"We are grateful to all alert citizens and ethical hackers pointing out such weaknesses, and have gotten in touch with some of them directly," the board said in a statement on X.
After the NEET-UG 'paper leak' row, NTA faced another big blow with the delay of the CUET exam. The exam, which was scheduled for May 30, was delayed at some centres across the country due to a technical glitch, according to NTA.
The agency said the examination at the centres that experienced the glitch was being conducted with full compensatory time, causing no loss to candidates.
The SSC GD exam, held on May 25, also spiralled into chaos at several centres across Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, with students reportedly left stranded at various places due to sudden cancellations.
In one such instance, authorities at an examination centre in UP's Kanpur were forced to cancel both shifts after nearly double the number of candidates were allotted seats. As many as 819 candidates were issued admit cards for each shift at a centre with a seating capacity of 399 candidates.
Several political leaders, including Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, and former Delhi chief minister Atishi, launched stark attacks on education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. They slammed the controversies surrounding competitive exams.
“NEET. CBSE. SSC. And today CUET. Four exams. One crore children. Not a single one conducted with honesty," Rahul Gandhi said in a post on X. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has “completely ruined the entire education system”.
Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee also slammed the irregularities in the NEET, CBSE, and SSC GD exams, saying that "India's youth are being pushed into a cycle of anxiety, uncertainty and BETRAYAL."
"Crores of students spend years preparing, sacrificing sleep, resources, mental peace and family expectations with the hope that hard work will secure their future. What do they receive in return? Paper leaks. Technical glitches. Mismanagement. Overcrowded centres. Broken systems," Banerjee posted on X.
