Student Protests Over NEET Leak Challenge BJP and Sangh Parivar

A group of young men and women armed with unobtrusive microphones stepped into the space at Jantar Mantar that legacy media had abandoned as it steadily regressed to a Doordarshan template, The Hindu reported. Working alone or in small teams across digital platforms, these independent reporters did not shy away from putting the authorities and the police in the dock, marking what the publication described as a coming-of-age moment for independent journalism in India. Only three senior television journalists reported from the ground; almost every other prime-time anchor stayed away, leaving field reporters to absorb the anger of the demonstrators (The Hindu).

The protests, triggered by the alleged NEET paper leak, appear to have hit closer to home for the Bharatiya Janata Party and the larger Sangh Parivar than previous agitations against the National Democratic Alliance government, according to The Hindu. The disquiet became visible when Dibisa Mahanta, daughter of Assam Revenue Minister Keshab Mahanta, joined the student demonstrations. Other instances of unease within the ranks followed. Manika Rana, former president of the BJP’s youth wing in Uttarakhand’s Tehri Garhwal, participated in the Cockroach Janta Party-led protest at Jantar Mantar. While social media reports claimed she had been expelled for her participation, Rana told The Hindu she was removed from her post in April due to personal engagements and remains with the party, though she supports the students’ demands, including the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan (The Hindu).

Criticism has also emerged from veterans associated with the Sangh. Former Union Minister Murli Manohar Joshi expressed concerns over police action against protesters on July 20 and later posted on X, “Better late than never,” following Pradhan’s resignation. RSS member Ratan Sharda, a contributor to the RSS mouthpiece Organiser, publicly argued that the BJP’s communication machinery and IT Cell suffered a “spectacular failure” in countering the narrative around the “Cockroach Protests.” In a post on X clarified as his personal view, Sharda said the media team relied on memes and “whataboutery” instead of building a counter-narrative, failed to gauge growing youth anger over issues such as NEET, and lacked a feedback mechanism from the ground. He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi having to personally intervene to regain the narrative reflected poorly on the party’s communication strategy, asserting his criticism was intended to strengthen nationalist forces (The Hindu).

The demonstrations also exposed a rupture between the protesters and traditional news outlets. Students flooded social media with speeches by CJP leaders, videos of activist Sonam Wangchuk’s fast, footage of police lathi charges, and the image of a young woman in Mumbai standing defiantly in front of a police bus, signalling that legacy media in its current avatar is no longer the flag bearer of information. The Hindu’s report noted that for 12 years, much of the media distorted the country’s identity through finely chiselled hate and disregard for facts, character-assassinating innocents on the strength of WhatsApp forwards and ideological loyalty. While opposing physical heckling of journalists, the publication argued the outpouring of anger directed at these channels is justified, placing much of the blame on editors, including those at a news agency that once allowed fake Islamophobic tweets to circulate for 24 hours before quietly deleting them (The Hindu).