A protest against exam paper leaks in Delhi turned into a wider debate after young men from Madhya Pradesh wore T-shirts calling their own state a “land of cowards.”
A group of students from Madhya Pradesh sparked a heated debate this week after they wore T-shirts with a provocative Hindi slogan at a protest in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. The T-shirts read, roughly translated, “We too have come from the state of cowards, Madhya Pradesh.”
The students were part of a larger demonstration by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a group of students protesting against paper leaks in national exams such as NEET-UG and NET. When YouTubers interviewed the students at the protest, the video spread quickly across social media, and the slogan became a talking point across the country.
In the video, the students listed several issues from their home state. They spoke about the Bhagirathpura tragedy in Indore, where contaminated water killed dozens of people, and about a hospital in Khajrana that has existed only on paper for years, despite staff being appointed to run it. They also raised the Chhindwara cough syrup case, in which several children died.
Not an insult, say students
Pawan Ahirwar, one of the students who wore the T-shirt, said the slogan was not meant to insult the state. He said it was aimed at the silence of the state’s young people.
“The word wasn’t used to insult anyone. It was meant to push young people to find the courage to stand up for their rights.”
Ahirwar argued that students in states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar take to the streets even over small irregularities in exams, often forcing governments to act. In Madhya Pradesh, he said, young people tend to stay quiet even after major scandals such as Vyapam and the Patwari recruitment scam.
Political analyst Rasheed Kidwai pointed out that many political slogans sound harsher than they are meant to be. He noted that political parties across the spectrum have long used sharp language to make a point, and added that when senior leaders themselves do not hold back on personal attacks, it seems unfair to single out students for one T-shirt.
Why the Patwari scam came up
The students were already part of an ongoing protest in Indore against paper leaks, and they linked this to Madhya Pradesh’s own Patwari recruitment scam. Their point was that unfair exams are not only a national problem, but one that has also touched state-level recruitment.
The Madhya Pradesh Employees Selection Board held the Patwari recruitment exam in March-April 2023, with results declared on 30 June 2023. Within days, allegations of large-scale cheating surfaced. Seven of the top ten candidates in the merit list came from a single exam centre in Gwalior, which was run by a college linked to a sitting BJP MLA at the time. Several so-called toppers could not tell reporters how many districts Madhya Pradesh has, and some papers showed full marks in English despite the candidates having signed in Hindi. Twenty-three candidates from Morena district shared the same surname, Tyagi, and several of them had reportedly been selected under a disability quota.
Facing pressure, the then Shivraj Singh Chouhan government halted the appointments in July 2023 and set up an inquiry commission. The state government changed in December 2023, and after the commission gave the recruitment process a clean chit, the Mohan Yadav government cleared the way for appointments in February 2024. Student groups are still demanding that the inquiry report be made public.
Water deaths, cough syrup deaths and a hospital on paper
The students did not limit their protest to paper leaks. They also pointed to a pattern of administrative failure in the state.
In December last year, contaminated water in Indore’s Bhagirathpura area killed 36 people. Thirty-five of the bodies were cremated without a post-mortem, and the one post-mortem that was carried out did not record a cause of death. The Madhya Pradesh High Court set up an inquiry panel led by retired Justice Sushil Gupta in January, but the report has still not been made public months later.
In Chhindwara, a cough syrup called Coldrif was linked to the deaths of 26 children. Police arrested the company’s owner, S. Ranganathan, after public pressure, but students are demanding action against the officials responsible for allowing the syrup to reach the market.
A civil hospital with 100 beds was announced for Indore’s Khajrana area nearly six years ago. The government has still not acquired land for the building, yet 87 posts, including doctors, nurses and paramedical staff, were approved and filled for a hospital that does not exist. These staff currently work at other hospitals in the city, including PC Sethi Hospital and Hukumchand Hospital. The state government says the plan was to upgrade an existing urban health centre, and that construction has been delayed only because of the land issue. Former Congress minister Sajjan Singh Verma has called for a high-level inquiry into the matter.
A stunt, or a wake-up call?
Ahirwar rejected the idea that the T-shirt was a publicity stunt, saying he and other students had protested on nearly every major issue in Indore in recent years, from hospital negligence to fee hikes.
Political analyst Ravi Thakur disagreed, arguing that issues such as the Bhagirathpura and cough syrup cases had no direct link to the NEET protest, and that raising them appeared to be a deliberate attempt to grab attention rather than start a genuine debate.
Kidwai took a middle view. He said there is no longer a fixed code of conduct for protest in the social media age, and that provocative slogans have become a common way to draw attention. But he added that young people cannot be blamed alone, since they often take their cue from senior politicians who do not hesitate to use harsh language against each other.
For more coverage on inflation, fuel prices and Madhya Pradesh politics, read updates on VisionMP.
Disclaimer: This article is based on video footage, public statements and available reports at the time of publishing. VisionMP does not endorse the views expressed by the protesters or any individual quoted in this piece. Readers are advised to treat ongoing investigations (including the Bhagirathpura water contamination case and the Patwari recruitment scam) as sub judice or pending official conclusion, and to await official findings before drawing final conclusions. Views of political analysts quoted are their own and do not reflect the editorial stance of VisionMP.
