A guest teacher in Rohtak was suspended on June 8 after taking part in a Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on June 6, officials said.
The district elementary education officer’s order placed Sulekha Dalal, who teaches at Government Middle School in Rainkpura, under suspension. The order gave no specific reason, but District Elementary Education Officer Bijender Hooda told The Hindu that she had “violated the conduct rules for government employees by leaving her station and taking part in the protest without prior approval.”
Dalal was seen in a widely shared video addressing protesters and describing the demonstration as a “do or die” fight. In the clip, she said she was at the protest as “a mother supporting children” and added, “Now the mother of the cockroach has stepped into the field. We are with our children. One mother is the mother of the entire nation.” Dalal later told The Hindu that her family had “no political background for generations.”
The CJP protests followed the cancellation of the undergraduate medical entrance exam amid allegations of a paper leak, and have highlighted wider grievances from students and job seekers over alleged irregularities in various examinations, including the CBSE Class 12 exams and SSC recruitment tests.
Dalal has alleged her 21-year-old son was unfairly excluded from the final list for the Delhi Head Constable recruitment amid claims of a leaked paper. The suspension order states she will receive a subsistence allowance during the suspension and be headquartered at the block education officer’s office in Rohtak.
The Cockroach Janta Party, launched in mid May after comments by Chief Justice Surya Kant were widely reported as likening some unemployed youth to “cockroaches,” describes itself as a youth-led political front and has attracted significant social media support.