When governments fail to address the genuine concerns of their young citizens, the general tendency is to dismiss, criticise and discredit those protesting, or worse still, reduce them to something less than human. The unrest triggered by repeated examination paper leaks, reflected in the growing student mobilisation under the banner of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) at Jantar Mantar, and echoed at Panaji's Azad Maidan, has laid bare a serious institutional failure. For two days, protesters in Delhi were being subjected to police teargas, lathi charges and violence. There were school-children, college students, parents, senior citizens; some came in uniforms while others in cockroach attire.
Unfortunately, instead of responding with accountability or empathy, some political leaders have chosen the easier path of ridicule and derision. Goa BJP Vice-President and former MP Narendra Sawaikar, in a social media post, shared an image of a map overrun by pests with the caption, "Cockroaches with the termites! Save the nation!"
Though the post was later removed from Facebook, it remained on X, and its message was certainly in bad taste. It attempted to portray students demanding transparency and fairness in examinations not as concerned citizens, but as destructive forces eating away at the nation. Any language that compares citizens, particularly students seeking accountability, to household pests is far more than an ill-judged metaphor. It seeks to strip legitimate dissent of its democratic and constitutional standing.
Sawaikar's subsequent explanation only deepened the controversy. He insisted the post was merely a literal reference to household pest control and suggested that anyone interpreting it politically was betraying a guilty conscience. The defence was as unconvincing as it was dismissive. Coupled with party colleagues insisting there was "no question of an apology," it reflected an unwillingness to recognise why the remarks had caused such widespread outrage. Words such as "termites" carry a disturbing historical legacy, having often been used to dehumanise groups before justifying their exclusion or suppression. When elected representatives resort to such language, they move beyond the rough edges of political debate into the dangerous territory of dehumanisation.
It must be borne in mind that those protesting on the streets, especially students, are not enemies of the nation. They are people rendered helpless by recurring examination scandals, repeated administrative failures and a system that has steadily eroded their confidence. Twelve NEET-UG aspirants committing suicide during the 37-day interval between the cancellation of the original 2026 examination and the June 21 retest says a lot. Police records and family accounts across States have cited extreme stress, anxiety and deep uncertainty caused to students by the paper leak.
To dismiss demands for accountability and the resignation of those responsible by branding them as "pests" is not merely insensitive but also reflects a disconnect from democratic values. What those in power appear to overlook is that name-calling cannot conceal institutional failure. The very idea of the Cockroach Janata Party emerged as a satirical response to official indifference. Branding the protesters as "termites" only reinforces the message the movement was trying to make in the first place.
Contempt is not a substitute for governance. When those entrusted with public office respond to the anxieties of young people with mockery instead of solutions, they display political arrogance, possibly to appease their bosses. The students are not asking for the moon; they are seeking accountability and action. Meeting those demands with insults reflects not only a failure of governance, but also a failure of basic democratic decency, and utterances of “termites” reflect the toxicity of political discourse.
