After Test Data Scandal, India’s Youth Stake Their Claim on the Digital Square | TechPolicy.PressPerspective<br>After Test Data Scandal, India’s Youth Stake Their Claim on the Digital Square<br>Apar Gupta / Jun 11, 2026Apar Gupta is a fellow at Tech Policy Press. Disclosure: The author has conversed and informally provided legal advice and support to Dipke, Adhikary and Sidhant in his capacity as an Advocate and Director at IFF. IFF has also collaborated on two instagram posts regarding web censorship and the IT Rules with CJP’s instagram page.<br>Abhijeet Dipke, center, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party addresses supporters during a protest demonstration in New Delhi, India, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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On May 15, two weeks before the Supreme Court broke for a nearly month-long summer vacation, the Honorable Justice Surya Kant, Chief Justice of India, called the millions of unemployed Indian youth “cockroaches” and “parasites.” In his own words, they become “media, some of them become social media, RTI activists and other activists and they start attacking everyone.”<br>Offensive remarks have been a pattern with Justice Kant, noticed primarily within the legal community. But this time was different, and his words sparked an online firestorm. Perhaps it was to be expected, as India is the world’s most populous country, home to 1.4 billion people with a median age ranging between 28-30. It’s this segment of Indians—late millennials, Gen-Z, and Gen-Alpha—that carry deep anxiety and often anger towards public systems that they believe only cause coercion, distrust and scarcity. They worry about their present and their future while blaming the past. To put it in stark economic terms, as per the report State of Working India 2026, nearly 40% of Indian graduates under the age of 25 are unemployed.<br>Unsurprisingly, a large section of these “cockroaches” took to social media to voice their outrage, which was not quelled by Kant’s later attempt at clarification. Their creative protest was exemplified by individuals such as Abhijeet Dipke, who vibe coded a website and graphics on Claude to launch social media handles under the moniker, “Cockroach Janta Party” (Cockroach People’s Party), or the CJP. In pure numbers of followers, within a week it overtook the Instagram handles of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the principal opposition party, the Indian National Congress (INC).<br>While some—including me—dismissed it on the day it was launched as a social media fad, over time many commentators have recognized that the outcry as an expression of the disenchantment of India’s youth with social and political vehicles that fail to represent their voices in a digitized India. The official response was unsurprisingly censorial, which almost has become a muscular reflex of the Indian state to protect the political interests of the ruling BJP. Its insecurity is real, for as the debutant TVK’s astounding electoral success in the State of Tamil Nadu has evidenced, digital organizing is as, if not more, important as physical mobilization.<br>The financialization of digital public infrastructure<br>Two days before CJP’s social media blew up, more than 1.8 million class 12 students were being informed about their exam results. Colloquially called the “board,” it is a nationwide exam administered by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) that causes mental trauma due to social and parental pressure for scholastic achievement. The results of these tests are considered a lifelong marker for success, and to gain admission or meet qualification criteria for entrance exams in institutions of higher education. This year, the CBSE launched the On-Screen Marking System (OSM) which offered a total of 10 bulleted benefits promising, “efficiency and transparency.” However, as soon as the results were announced, when applying for reevaluation students discovered glaring discrepancies both in their marks as well as the OSM portal. This occurred in a low trust environment in which there have been successive reports of competitive examinations being compromised due to “paper leaks.” The problem is so severe that authorities have imposed internet shutdowns as a preemptive measure to prevent mass cheating in other competitive and state recruitment exams.<br>The entire process of revaluation through the OSM portal, through which evaluators grade papers and then students can view the marksheets and apply for revaluation, is financialized—with the cost being borne by the students. This includes ₹100 for a scanned copy of an evaluated answer book (typically a student takes a test in a minimum of 5 subjects), ₹100 for verification of issues observed, and ₹25 per question for re-evaluation (typically a test has about 33 questions), with the re-evaluation fee refundable if marks increase. While CBSE reduced the reevaluation fee following the backlash, it remains clear this system is designed to levy a monetary levy for...