In Defence of the Profanity of Protesters / Exam anger becomes a political reckoning
In Defence of the Profanity of Protesters
30/07/2026
The Wire / by Anand Teltumbde
The state had a script for slogans, petitions, op-eds – the standard grammar of Indian dissent, which it had learned to out-shout, outspend or simply wait out over ten years in power. It had no script at all for being laughed at.
When the great lord passes the wise peasant bows deeply and silently farts.
–Ethiopian proverb
On July 24, Dharmendra Pradhan resigned as Union education minister – the first such casualty a citizens’ movement has extracted from Narendra Modi’s government in more than a decade in power. It is worth asking why this movement, of all the movements this government has faced down and outlasted, actually worked. Part of the answer lies in something India’s commentariat has been strangely reluctant to say out loud: the “Cockroaches” won partly because they were rude.
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CJP protests | Exam anger becomes a political reckoning
24/07/2026
Deccan Herald / by Bharat Bhushan
Pan-India protests against the events of July 20 have marked a significant shift in Indian politics, moribund for 12 years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. What began as a narrow protest about examination leaks has become a generational statement about the lack of institutional accountability.
… A movement of such diversity resists easy categorisation. This is making it harder for the government to neutralise it by its usual strategy of labelling its critics as anti-national. Whereas it attempted to brand earlier protest movements as political extremists such as Punjab farmers as ‘Khalistani’; anti-CAA protestors as representing sectarian ‘Muslim unrest’; linking civil rights’ activists in the Bhima-Koregaon case to ‘Naxalite extremists’, and the infamous attempt to label JNU students as being sympathetic to Kashmiri militants.
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Why Should Protesters Seek Police Permission?
22/07/2026
The Wire / by Anand Teltumbde
The police response to the students’ march in Delhi raises a disturbing question. Had the police begun to resemble street goons, or had street goons been absorbed into the policing of democratic dissent?
On July 20, the long-running protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar took a dramatic turn. For nearly three weeks, an uneasy calm had prevailed around the indefinite fast of Sonam Wangchuk and three students demanding accountability for repeated examination leaks and the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The original permission to assemble had long since expired, yet, curiously, the police allowed the protest to continue, perhaps calculating that it would eventually lose momentum.
Instead, the opposite happened.
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The exam crisis that became a battle for accountability
21/07/2026
Sabrang India / by Sabrang India
From student grievances to Sonam Wangchuk’s hunger strike, the movement questioned accountability, democracy and the limits of State intervention
On July 20, 2026, the streets around Delhi’s Jantar Mantar became the centre of a rapidly escalating confrontation between a student-led movement demanding accountability over alleged failures in the education system and a State determined to prevent the protest from moving towards Parliament.
… In Mumbai, the state’s restrictive approach to public assembly has turned the city into a theater of confrontation.
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CJP protest row: Mumbai Police book Shivaji Park organisers for unlawful assembly
20/07/2026
The Indian Express / by Express News Service
The organisers of the Shivaji Park protest are facing an FIR for ‘unlawful assembly’ as the Mumbai Police said, no permission was granted to carry out the demonstration.
… Earlier, the Mumbai Police had registered two FIRs in connection with the protests that were carried out in south Mumbai on Saturday in support of Sonam Wangchuk.The first FIR was registered at the Marine Drive police station against the NCP (Sharad Pawar) faction party workers for protesting near Mantralaya, and the second against left party organisations for protesting near the Press Club. The seven people booked include Sudhir Dhawale, an accused in the Elgar Parishad case who received bail last year.
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Mumbai Police Register Three FIRs Over Uddhav Thackeray-Led Protest Backing Sonam Wangchuk
20/07/2026
Lokmat Times / by Lokmat Times Desk
Mumbai Police have registered three FIRs in connection with the protest led by Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday in support of activist Sonam Wangchuk. According to the police, the first FIR concerns the alleged organisation of the protest without prior permission. The second relates to appeals made to the public to gather at the venue despite the lack of official approval. The third FIR was filed after students reportedly continued demonstrations at various locations in Dadar even after the main protest ended, causing major traffic congestion. Police said no arrests have been made in any of the three cases so far.
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Elgar Parishad accused booked for protesting in support of Sonam Wangchuk
19/07/2026
Hindustan Times / by HT Correspondent
Azad Maidan police said the protestors were booked for unlawful assembly and allowed to leave after being served notices to present themselves if required
MUMBAI: Activist and writer Sudhir Dhawale and a few others were booked by the police for protesting outside Azad Maidan on Saturday, in connection with the alleged forcible removal of activist Sonam Wangchuk from Jantar Mantar in Delhi. Dhawale is one of the accused in the Elgar Parishad case and was released on bail from the Taloja Central Jail in January 2025.
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CJP protest in Mumbai: How Azad Maidan became the city’s site of agitations, with restrictions
19/07/2026
The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak
Azad Maidan as a site of protest can be traced back to a 1997 court case. Since then, several rules have been laid down on the manner of protests allowed, including weekend restrictions, a ban on hunger strikes, and the slogans that can be raised.
Mumbai-based activists and citizens have been gathering at the Azad Maidan since last week in solidarity with the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest being held at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, over the NEET-UG 2026 entrance examination paper leak.
On Saturday (July 18), the Mumbai Police filed two FIRs against some of the protestors, citing the Public Meetings, Agitations and Processions Rules, 2025, which prohibit protests at the maidan on weekends.
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Also read:
▪ Who Answers to Us?: The Jantar Mantar Protests and India’s Missing Idea of Accountability (The Wire | by Anand Teltumbde | Jul 2026)
▪ The exam crisis that became a battle for accountability (SabrangIndia / Jul 2026)
▪ CJP protest: From Shillong to Mumbai, solidarity demonstrations held across India (Scroll.in / Jul 2026)
▪ How Maharashtra’s folk traditions fuel Sudhir Dhawale’s tireless cultural resistance against caste (Scroll.in / Apr 2026)
▪ Elgar Parishad case accused at event that attacked Maharashtra Public Security Bill, cops to seek bail review (TOI / May 2026)
▪ Sudhir Dhawale: “This is a bigger prison” (The Caravan | by Sudhir Dhawale | Apr 2025)
▪ Interview | Sudhir Dhawale’s Work Will Go on (The Wire / Feb 2025)
▪ Sudhir Dhawale interview: ‘The law remains blind to injustice even with the blindfold gone’ (Scroll.in / Feb 2025)
