For more than a decade, Indian leader Narendra Modi has presided over a government that has appeared politically impregnable, outmaneuvering opponents, dominating public debate and narrowing the space for dissent in the world’s largest democracy.
But last weekend, a youth-led protest movement powered online for just a few weeks dealt a blow that none of the beleaguered mainstream parties opposing him could, forcing the government to retreat.
Tens of thousands of Gen Z protesters, led by a satirical movement called the Cockroach Janta Party, have flooded the streets of New Delhi for days, demanding accountability for the leaked university entrance exam that they say deprived millions of students of a fair chance at the future. Their target was Dharmendra Pradhan, the education minister and Prime Minister Modi’s trusted aide, who was monitoring the leak.
Prime Minister Pradhan’s resignation on Saturday was met with no small amount of surprise, with jubilant voices at the capital’s Jantar Mandal, an 18th-century observatory that had become a vibrant and colorful hub for the protest movement. Crowds took to the streets, dancing and singing into the night, waving flags, and celebrating what they saw as a victory for accountability and collective action.
This was an unprecedented retreat for Modi’s Party of India (BJP), which has seen off several civil society protests since coming to power in 2014, and dealt a blow to the personal aura of Modi, who has projected himself as India’s strongman leader.
India’s education minister resigns over ‘cockroach’ youth protests
Their success seems to have inspired others to believe that some form of change is possible.
“A week ago, we couldn’t give any feedback to the government,” said software engineer Akshit Tyagi, 22, from a protest site in the capital.
“Everyone is coming out now…and there’s more validation and people are starting to realize that they can actually demand something from the government.”
Three of India’s neighbors, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, have all seen tumultuous youth-led political changes in recent years.
Now in India, where youth discontent smolders beneath the surface, some are wondering whether the success of the so-called “cockroaches” heralds the beginning of something similar.
Many of the young protesters at Jantar Mantar came of age during the Modi government’s tenure, defined by broad promises of national greatness, economic prosperity and a new sense of nationalism. These pledges defined their formative years and shaped their expectations about the course of the nation and their place within it.
India remains one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies and has invested heavily in infrastructure, technology and manufacturing during Prime Minister Modi’s three terms in office. But many young Indians say national success has not translated into opportunities for them.
The country has one of the world’s youngest populations, with over 360 million people aged 15 to 29. However, a recent report revealed that nearly 40% of graduates under the age of 25 are unemployed.
Years of frustration exploded into widespread anger in May when the government admitted that exam questions for medicine and dentistry courses had been leaked and millions of people across the country had to retake them.
This was exploited by CJP, which began as a satirical online movement founded by Boston University graduate Abhijeet Dipke. It quickly became a vehicle for intergenerational anxieties and a platform for expressing grievances about the lack of jobs, governance, and upward mobility.
“This is a real shock and setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party,” said Rahul Verma, a political scientist and researcher at the New Delhi-based think tank Center for Policy Research, of the protests and Pradhan’s resignation. “They probably didn’t anticipate the kinds of frustrations and anxieties that are being built into society.”
In its 12 years in power, the BJP has weathered numerous protests, from public anger over a sudden demonetization plan that made more than 80% of the country’s currency notes invalid, to widespread protests against the controversial citizenship law and months of demonstrations by farmers protesting agricultural reforms.
Verma pointed out that these issues centered around policy and ideological disagreements, which allowed the government to rally supporters by telling opposing stories.
In contrast, he described the CJP protests as “the first movement caused by administrative failure” and therefore much harder to contain.
Officials initially fired them quickly. In a TV interview last month, Pradhan even called the CJP the “B-team of terrorist groups”.
India’s mainstream television news channels paid little attention to the movement, encouraging students to document the movement themselves.
Protesters covered events in real time, filming Instagram reels, sharing videos and memes often laced with dark humor and criticism of Prime Minister Modi, and posting updates from protest sites. Social media became an ongoing record of the movement and helped turn exam complaints into a national conversation.
The flood of content has led to more young people joining the protests, highlighting the declining influence of traditional media in India among Gen Z. By the time these news outlets finally began covering the protests extensively, the movement had already captured the public imagination.
The momentum intensified on July 20, when police used tear gas and sticks to break up a parliamentary march of tens of thousands of people demanding Pradhan’s ouster. The demonstrators remained undaunted, escalating the confrontation with Modi’s government and, for the first time, calling for his removal from office.
Although Mr. Modi secured a third consecutive term in 2024, he won with a reduced parliamentary majority, making it much harder to ignore the dissatisfaction of key voters.
Verma said most of the demonstrators were young people and their parents from the middle and lower middle classes, who have traditionally formed a key pillar of support for the Bharatiya Janata Party.
“Young and middle-class voters are significantly more likely to support the Bharatiya Janata Party, which made the protests particularly problematic for the government,” he said.
Prime Minister Modi, known for cultivating an image of asceticism and control, appeared to change tactics late last week, releasing two selfie-style video messages on social media addressing students directly. This was a remarkable attempt to join the platform on which the movement itself thrives.
After the first close-up version was widely ridiculed, he said in a second video, “Thank you my friends,” changing to a new camera angle that was slightly further away from his face. “I appreciate your response to my video and your positive suggestions.”
On Saturday, protest leaders announced they would call off their demonstrations as the government assured them it would address other demands, including compensation for the families of students who committed suicide in the exam leak scandal. The main protest site in New Delhi has since been cleared.
The Cockroach Janta Party achieved what most people thought possible. But its long-term legacy may depend on whether India’s Generation Z can turn that victory into a broader movement that can sustain pressure on the issues that affect their future.
Prime Minister Modi remains widely popular, and his Bharatiya Janata Party has become a formidable vote-getting machine, having just a few months ago won big victories in state elections, including in key regions where it had previously struggled to win.
The next general election is not until 2029.
“This is what it was… a young people’s fight,” said Devansh Gupta, a protester who works in the advertising industry.
“All the problems that young people have are being brought before the government. I don’t know how many years it will take. I think this is one of the biggest things that has happened to India in a very long time.”
In his last remarks before leaving the Jantar Mantar Observatory protest camp, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke hinted that the party was not disbanding.
“This is not the end,” he said. “See you again soon.”
