A post on the Cockroach Janta Party’s X account shows Bollywood actor Imran Khan in protest in Mumbai on Wednesday. The caption says, “Bollywood actor Imran Khan marches with the CJP protesters in Mumbai.”
Bollywood actor Imran Khan marches with the CJP protesters in Mumbai
— Cockroach is Back (@Cockroachisback) July 22, 2026
This is all tied to a protest movement that’s been building since May. It started after Chief Justice Surya Kant called unemployed youth “cockroaches” and “parasites.” Young people turned that insult into a name for their movement, and it stuck. What began as memes and jokes online turned into real crowds on real streets.
The anger is mostly about the NEET-UG 2026 exam. Students say the paper was leaked and the whole process was rigged. They want Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to quit and want someone to actually answer for what went wrong.
On Monday, over 10,000 people tried to march on Parliament in Delhi. Police hit them with tear gas and baton charges. Close to 180 people got hurt in the clash. Activist Sonam Wangchuk has been refusing food for more than three weeks now, sitting in support of the same students.
Mumbai has its own protest scene going
It’s not just Delhi. Mumbai has had its own protests all week. On Wednesday, actress Ayesha Khan got picked up by police at a protest in Dadar. She says she was just standing there quietly when they put her in a police van. She’s since asked publicly why she was even detained.
Actors Gurfateh Singh Pirzada and Pratibha Ranta showed up at a Mumbai protest the same day. Pirzada posted pictures afterward and said he was scared to go but felt good about it once he did.
A few other names have spoken up too. Sonakshi Sinha and Hrithik Roshan have both called out how police have handled the protesters. Naseeruddin Shah went further, comparing the police crackdown to how ICE agents operate in the US.