The Cockroach Janata Party’s press conference on June 4 came a day after the outfit held its first media interaction at the Constitution Club of India, where it said it was open to dialogue with both the government and the Opposition over its demands.
| Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
The Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) on Thursday (June 4, 2026) said the reported exposure of JEE (Advanced) 2026 candidate data due to a cloud storage configuration issue in the results portal showed how “incompetent” people were running the country’s education system and digital infrastructure.
The leaders of the campaign, which began on social media and went on to take a life of its own, also appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately sack Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, saying he had failed to ensure accountability in the education sector.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, CJP leaders said the incident had raised fresh concerns about the security of student data and the government’s handling of examination systems.
CJP spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka, an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and the London School of Economics who was appointed the campaign’s spokesperson on Wednesday, said the exposure of candidate information reflected the poor state of cybersecurity safeguards.
“Names, phone numbers and images of nearly two lakh students got exposed. In a country that has produced techies leading top technology companies across the world, the education minister and the government are so incompetent that they are unable to run basic systems securely,” Mr. Ranka said.
“The education minister is totally incompetent. He has run the education system into the ground. We appeal to the Prime Minister to sack Dharmendra Pradhan immediately. This is about the future of our students and a lot is at stake,” he added.
He also said public institutions required individuals with scientific temper and technical competence.
Questioning the response of IIT Roorkee, which conducted the exam this year as its nodal body, Mr. Ranka said the institute’s assertion 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 are saying it could be read but not edited. One basic IIT portal cannot be run securely. Sixteen, 17 and 18-year-olds are discovering vulnerabilities and alerting CERT. This shows the level of competence of the people running the system,” he said.
On Tuesday (June 2, 2026), IIT Roorkee acknowledged a cloud storage configuration issue linked to the JEE (Advanced) 2026 results portal after a teenage cybersecurity researcher reported that candidate records and admit-card documents were accessible without authentication.
The institute said corrective action was being taken on priority and maintained that the exposed data was in read-only mode, ruling out any possibility of alteration of records.
Mr. Ranka demanded that the government disclose details of all data exposure incidents and cybersecurity lapses under its watch.
“We want to know where this country’s data has landed and who all have access to it. Details of all such breaches, especially those that could impact national security, should be made public,” he said.
Mr. Ranka sought to dispel speculation that the CJP’s proposed June 6 agitation could turn violent and reiterated its commitment to peaceful protest.
“Rumours are being spread about violence. The Cockroach Janata Party calls for peaceful and democratic protests in line with law and order. We urge people to shun violence,” he said.
The press conference came a day after the outfit held its first media interaction at the Constitution Club of India, where it said it was open to dialogue with both the government and the Opposition over its demands while continuing to seek Mr. Pradhan’s resignation.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, who is pursuing higher education in the United States, is expected to arrive in Delhi on June 6 and seek permission for a protest at Jantar Mantar. The party has said climate activist Sonam Wangchuk will also join the proposed demonstration.
The CJP traces its origins to a controversy sparked by remarks made by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant last month, when he referred to certain individuals as “cockroaches” and “parasites” during a court hearing.
The remarks triggered a backlash on social media, with CJP founder Dipke and his supporters appropriating the term “cockroach” as a political symbol and launching what began as an online youth movement before evolving into an organised campaign.
Published – June 04, 2026 04:57 pm IST
