Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
· collected 2026-08-18 · by Yashraj Sharma
New Delhi, India — On August 13, Abdul Hafeez returned to the primary school he once went to, in Karisunda, a village in Bankura district in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal.
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he → return → Bengal
The 26-year-old was visiting his alma mater as part of a campaign by the Cockroach Janata Party, a popular Indian pressure group, to audit conditions of the country’s under-funded, often dilapidated government-run schools.
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old → visit → schools
The CJP had just succeeded in forcing the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, in July, after a 37-day sit-in in the national capital that prompted antigovernment Gen Z protests across the country.
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that → succeed → country
But in Bankura, things would turn deadly.
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things → turn → Bankura
Hours after Hafeez’s visit to his school, he alleged that local workers of Modi’s Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) arrived at his home and assaulted him and his father, Mohammad Mafik.
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workers → allege → him
Two days later, Hafeez’s 51-year-old father died from his injuries.
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father → die → injuries
On Sunday, Suvendu Adhikari, the chief minister of BJP-ruled West Bengal, said the attackers were “criminals with no BJP connection” and assured action.
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attackers → rule → action
But a day after burying his father, Hafeez told Al Jazeera that he stands firm in calling for accountability and reforms in government-run schools.
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he → bury → schools
“We will fight for justice for my father, but these attacks will not stop us from demanding better education,” he said.
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he → fight → education
That demand marks a new line in the sand for the CJP.
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demand → mark → CJP
Fresh from successfully forcing Modi and his government onto the defensive — the Indian PM has only rarely sacked ministers even in the face of credible accusations of wrongdoing or public pressure — the group has now announced its next battleground: India’s public-funded schools.
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group → force → battleground
CJP leaders have asked their supporters, who thronged the protests in New Delhi from different parts of the country, to visit their nearby schools and audit their conditions.
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who → ask → conditions
They are working around a basic four-point checklist for what the CJP is calling its Fix the Schools campaign: drinking water and functional toilets; electricity and usable classrooms; boundary walls and campus safety; and midday meals and teacher attendance.
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CJP → work → Schools
And the murder of Hafeez’s father has raised the already high stakes in a battle between the well-oiled machinery of Modi’s BJP and the fledgling, thin-on-organisation CJP.
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murder → raise → organisation
“Abdul went to inspect the [government] school in Bengal where he once studied,” said Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the CJP.
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Dipke → go → CJP
“It makes my blood boil that people are being murdered simply for demanding better schools.”
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people → make → schools
Ashutosh Ranka, a co-convenor of the Cockroach group, appeared emotional after meeting Hafeez’s family on Monday.
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Ranka → appear → Monday
He told reporters that the group proposed to press the government for compensation; however, Hafeez requested that a school be named after his father.
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school → tell → father
In Rajasthan, Ranka’s home state in western India, the group has faced other challenges.
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group → face → challenges
Ranka joined a sit-in with primary school students in Alwar district on August 14 to demand additional rooms, clean toilets and drinking water.
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Ranka → join → rooms
Local publications reported that the officials accepted the demands.
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officials → report → demands
On Sunday, the Rajasthan government, also led by Modi’s BJP, imposed restrictions on so-called outsiders entering government schools and on taking photos and videos, citing students’ privacy.
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outsiders → lead → privacy
The government notice, which ordered the school management to pursue criminal action against such surveys, came after Ranka had announced visits by CJP volunteers across the state.
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Ranka → order → state
Samina Bano, an education-policy expert who has advised several Indian states on reforms, told Al Jazeera that “it is essentially the system itself that is not working anymore for the people”.
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that → advise → people
In the last 10 years, Bano said, she had found “drunk teachers on duty during spot checks”, fake appointments in rural areas that many teachers do not want to go to, and other systemic failures that she insisted are common in the Indian public school system.
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she → say → system
“Education in government-run schools a sorry state of affairs.
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Education → run → affairs
It requires a disruptive change,” Bano said.
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Bano → require → change
“The real problem is the quality of teaching, learning outcomes and the food,” Bano added, crediting the Cockroach pressure group for bringing the demands for reform into mainstream politics.
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Bano → add → politics
“They are bringing it into the discourse, but once people start demanding, there needs to be actual institution building, and that’s different work altogether,” Bano said.
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Bano → bring → discourse
‘Playing to strength’
After Gen Z protesters returned from the streets in New Delhi, the internet was instead flooded with videos of school-going children asking for better facilities across several states.
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internet → play → states
They were blocking roads, circling local administration offices and fighting with bureaucrats.
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They → block → bureaucrats
The Cockroach party tapped into the momentum and announced its next phase in a smart mobilisation strategy, said Asim Ali, a political analyst in New Delhi.
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Ali → tap → Delhi
“It plays to their strength of leveraging social media.
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It → play → media
Without many volunteers [like a traditional political party], they can outsource the grassroots work to followers on social media itself,” he said.
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he → outsource → media
“By leveraging the power of social media, which is now felt in the remotest of corners in India, the Cockroach party has dramatically driven down organisational resource costs of a movement,” Ali added.
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Ali → leverage → movement
But Ali cautioned that this approach of relying on volunteers without political or organisational skills, protest experience or institutional support also exposes them to violence, as happened with the Hafeez family in West Bengal.
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approach → caution → Bengal
Yet the blood spilled in the eastern state hasn’t dimmed the drive from the CJP to demand accountability from authorities.
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blood → spill → authorities
On Tuesday, Ranka announced on X that multiple venues in West Bengal’s capital Kolkata had cancelled or refused permission to the CJP to hold meet-ups with students.
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venues → announce → students
“This only reinforces the fact that the BJP is scared from the cockroaches,” he wrote.
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he → reinforce → cockroaches
“Cockroaches of Bengal will continue to visit govt schools and push the Bengal govt to get them fixed.
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them → continue → govt
…and 1 more, not listed.
