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

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.” 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. …