Over Eight Lakh Students Signed Petition Demanding Dharmendra Pradhan's Resignation, Says CJP In 2Nd Presser

(MENAFN- Live Mint) Over eight lakh students have signed a petition on the CJP website demanding the resignation of the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) said in an official release.

“Over eight lakh students have signed a petition on CJP's website demanding the Education Minister's resignation. The petition has received no official response. CJP also appealed to the Delhi Police to take cognisance of hate and violence videos circulating online against protesters and to take immediate steps to prevent the spread of misinformation ahead of 6 June,” said the official release.

The CJP has also urged the Delhi Police to address hate-related and violent videos circulating online against protesters, calling for swift action to curb misinformation ahead of June 6, ANI reported.

Here's what CJP alleged

The CJP on Thursday 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.

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Addressing a press conference here, 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,” 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, 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, 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.

Ranka demanded that the government disclose details of all data exposure incidents and cybersecurity lapses under its watch.

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"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.

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 followed the group's first media interaction a day earlier at the Constitution Club of India, where it stated that it was willing to engage in discussions with both the government and the Opposition regarding its demands, while still pressing for the resignation of Pradhan.

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CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, who is currently pursuing higher studies in the United States, is expected to reach Delhi on June 6. He is likely to seek permission to hold a protest at Jantar Mantar. The organisation has also indicated that climate activist Sonam Wangchuk will participate in the planned 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.

(With inputs from ANI)

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