‘What if all cockroaches came together?’ The youth movement threatening to shake up India’s politics

A Cockroach Janta party supporter holds a cockroach mask during the protest. Photograph: Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images View image in fullscreen A Cockroach Janta party supporter holds a cockroach mask during the protest. Photograph: Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images ‘What if all cockroaches came together?’ The youth movement threatening to shake up India’s politics Cockroach Janta party began as online joke but is growing into one of the most unexpected challenges to country’s rightwing government The call out to the youth of India was simple: “Get ready to swarm the streets of Delhi with peaceful and loving dissent.” They came in their thousands. The weekend marked the first public protest of the Cockroach Janta party (CJP), a movement that began as an online joke, but which has swiftly grown into one of the most unexpected challenges to the indomitable power of the country’s rightwing Narendra Modi government – driven by millions of discontented and disillusioned young people. “The youth of this country will no longer fear, they will fight,” said CJP’s founder, Abhijeet Dipke, who had flown in that morning from the US to lead the lively protest. “For the government, we may be mere insects, but we are alive and capable of fighting for our rights.” View image in fullscreen Abhijeet Dipke addresses supporters during the protest in Delhi. Photograph: Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images Among the gen Zs and millennials who gathered amid a heavy police presence, many expressed hope that a youth-led mobilisation, similar to movements that brought down governments in the neighbouring countries of Nepal and Sri Lanka, could be gathering pace in India. “The young people here have suffered enough too,” said Kriti, 21, a university student from Delhi. The momentum behind the CJP has taken many by surprise, none more so than Dipke, who just a few weeks ago was living a quiet life in the US as an Indian graduate of Boston University. It was only on a whim, enraged by the comments of the chief justice of India who had compared India’s unemployed youth to “parasites” and “cockroaches” during a supreme court hearing, that Dipke had jokingly put out a call on social media: “What if all cockroaches came together?” The overwhelming response made him realise he had touched a nerve. He built a website and social media accounts for a satirical Cockroach Janta party – a poke at Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janta party (BJP) – complete with a biting manifesto taking aim at the government, and a tagline: “A political party for the people the system forgot to count.” ‘This is the most stressed city in India’: the dark side of coaching capital Kota Read more Within two weeks, the CJP’s Instagram page had more than 22 million followers, far overtaking the BJP. Not long after, the Modi government, notoriously intolerant of dissent, had attempted to block its account on X on national security grounds. Though initially cloaked in satire, for many of India’s gen Zs and millennials, the CJP has