How India’s young cockroach movement is challenging Modi

Riot police fired tear gas and used batons in New Delhi as tens of thousands of supporters of the satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) marched towards the Indian Parliament on Monday (July 20).

Police in the Indian capital said 60 protesters and 118 police officers were injured in clashes between demonstrators and security forces. Mobile internet was suspended in parts of the city, including around the Jantar Mantar protest site, during the violence.

Protesters are demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Earlier this year, authorities canceled the high-stakes NEET medical entrance exam due to question leaks, affecting millions of students and sparking outrage across India.

What is Cockroach Festival in India?

CJP began as an online campaign in May and quickly morphed into a Gen Z street movement, giving voice to a generation frustrated by unemployment, diminishing opportunities and a failing education system.

The youth-led Cockroach movement now poses an unexpected challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, provoking a response combining political awareness and police action.

Modi’s rivals have also tried to intervene and take advantage of young people’s frustrations.

“Is this how a government behaves? Using tear gas and baton blows against students? This is a worthless government,” Renuka Chowdhury, a lawmaker from India’s opposition Congress party, told DW.

Lessons from previous protests in India

The CJP movement gained new momentum this weekend after veteran reform activist Sonam Wangchuk, whose three-week hunger strike became a symbol of the protests, was forcibly taken to hospital by police.

This is not the first time that India has experienced major protest movements. Hunger strikes, used by Mahatma Gandhi, remain a common and peaceful form of protest in India.

India Against Corruption (IAC), led by veteran activist Anna Hazare, managed to mobilize millions of people in 2011 and reshape the country’s political landscape. A decade later, year-long farmers’ protests forced Modi to repeal controversial farm laws. However, the 2023 Olympic wrestlers’ protest over sexual harassment allegations achieved few of their goals, despite widespread sympathy.

Analysts believe that the CJP lacks the nationwide organizational network that farmers had. Yet, like the IAC movement, it tapped into broader public opinion.

“This protest is different because it reflects a much broader cross-section of Indian society,” said Yamini Aiyar, an analyst and visiting senior scholar at Brown University. “They express their frustration with a country whose education system, long atrophied, leaves them little hope for a better future.”

“Like the IAC movement, it attracted the middle class to the streets,” Aiyar told DW. “But this is a much more coercive political environment. From anti-citizenship protests to the peasant movement, citizens are increasingly looking beyond political parties to hold governments accountable.”

Police response sparks backlash among Indian protesters

This week’s clashes have failed to quell the anger of India’s Generation Z.

“Like many young people in India, I am angry at the lack of jobs and an education system that crushes my aspirations. Even though my family supports the BJP, I managed to get by,” Rukmini Singh, a student from Meerut, told DW.

“It was an attack on our children. I saw many young boys and girls injured and bleeding. They will never forget it, but the courage these people showed gives me hope,” Vasundara Singh, a teacher from Bihar, told DW.

As during the peasant protests, left-wing parties and student organizations became visible on the ground, helping to mobilize supporters and provide organizational support for the movement.

“After 50 years, young people have occupied the way to Parliament,” political activist Yogendra Yadav told DW. “This energy from the students shows that the way to Parliament is through the streets. It’s remarkable.”

Can the CJP mobilize Indian villages as easily as its cities?

The increase in the number of protests forced the government to engage in the movement after rejecting it for weeks.

Alongside the police action, senior ministers began discussions with CJP leaders. Home Minister Amit Shah met his cabinet colleagues while Health Minister JP Nadda held discussions with representatives of the movement.

“We will decide how best to respond to the students’ demands,” a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader told DW, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Most of the CJP’s support appears to come from students and India’s urban middle class. The BJP’s strongest voter base is in rural India and small towns, where the CJP has yet to prove its message resonates with young voters.

However, some experts believe that the CJP will do very well beyond India’s urban centers.

“This movement is likely to resonate beyond India’s cities, because the aspirations of young people in small towns and villages are no different,” political analyst Radhika Ramaseshan told DW.

Anti-cockroach protests in India are met with batons and tear gas

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“For a generation that saw education as the path to a better life, the failure of the education system became a deeply political issue,” she said.

“Young people in rural India no longer see agriculture or traditional professions as their only future. The survival of the CJP itself is another question, but the anger and frustration it has harnessed has the potential to reshape politics.”

“The anger is now directed against the government”

A movement focused on Indian cities could grab headlines without altering the BJP’s political fortunes. But if the CJP extends to rural youth, it could become a much broader political challenge.

“I don’t think this will remain an urban movement,” commentator Apoorvanand said.

“People are constantly moving between villages and towns, and those who have witnessed police action will carry those experiences home with them,” Apoorvanand told DW.

“The anger is now directed at the government. Its ability to become a broader political movement depends on the CJP’s ability to broaden its appeal.”

For now, the CJP has already achieved something unusual. He turned satire into sustained street mobilization, forced the government into talks, and ensured that the concerns of India’s youth remained firmly in the national spotlight.

“It’s a long fight. We will have to engage in a very long fight to achieve this. Because you have to change an entire system, the ties of that system are very deep-rooted,” said Saurav Das, chief spokesperson of the CJP.

Edited by: Keith Walker

Kidnapped or rescued? Indian police move Sonam Wangchuk

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