New Delhi, India – Saurav Kushwaha, 17, packed just a change of clothes and boarded an overnight train with his elder brother to reach New Delhi early on Saturday from their village in central India’s Madhya Pradesh.
The brothers rested on a footpath, waiting for Abhijeet Dipke to arrive from the United States.
The anger in Indian youth – where half of the country’s 1.4 billion population is under 25 – has been simmering for a while now, exacerbated by paper leaks and discrepancies in the country’s largest school boards.
And that anger seemed to have found an unexpected outlet in a satirical political party, the so-called Cockroach Janata Party (Cockroach People’s Party, or CJP), born out of taunts and jokes.
The Indian chief justice’s comments last month equating the youth with cockroaches drew widespread ire. In turn, Dipke, a recent graduate of Boston University, pondered on X at the time: “What if all cockroaches came together?”
It became a sensation on the Indian internet, making way for the launch of the CJP, a play on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Dipke’s casual joke attracted more than 22 million followers on Instagram, double that of Modi’s party, which has been in power since 2014.
But Dipke and hundreds of others who turned up in New Delhi on Saturday, demanding that Modi’s education minister resign, are not joking any more.
“The warning to the Modi government is simple: get the education minister to resign,” Dipke said, addressing a swelling crowd. “Or we will not leave from here.”
‘All cockroaches, assemble!’
Part of this movement is Kushwaha, the student from Madhya Pradesh, who has just cleared the 12th school-leaving exams from India’s Central Board of Secondary Education. The process had been mired in controversy over several discrepancies, including digital marking on the answer sheets.
He is not sure if he can afford higher education, but Kushwaha is angrier about the government “that has been indifferent to the people who voted them to power”.
The school board’s fiasco came just a week after the top medical examination for graduates was cancelled after the paper was leaked. Such events, the distraught students say, are an annual affair, with no political accountability.
After gaining online traction, Dipke’s CJP first tapped on the youth’s anger to galvanise support for the movement.
The party had called for “all cockroaches to assemble” at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site in the capital, to demand Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation.
“I followed them on Instagram for fun,” Kushwaha said among the crowd. “But there is a chance that we can actually get the minister to resign.”
That would be a first for Modi’s 12 years in power, if and when it happens.
India’s Gen Z population – the largest such cohort in the world – has only seen the rule of Modi’s Hindu nationalist BJP. Critics say the government has criminalised dissent, with India slipping in multiple democratic indices since Modi rose to power in 2014.
A season left behind
Still dressed for the chill he had left behind in the US, Dipke stepped into New Delhi’s sweltering, oppressive heat in a black zip-up hoodie, with a cap pulled low over his face.
Pushing through a crowd of cameras jostling for a glimpse, Dipke reached for the mic and gestured to the crowd to erupt in slogans. Drenched in sweat, he shrugged off the hoodie.
In his opening words, Dipke recalled the anxious overnight flight, saying his family feared he would be arrested after landing in New Delhi.
“But this is not a fear only of my mother,” he said, as the crowd shouted, “Shame!”
“Every mother in this country fears that if one talks about politics, speaks against this government, [they] will be arrested,” he added.
The Modi government has jailed several human rights and student activists over the last few years, in what the opposition and critics of the government say is a slump towards authoritarian rule. The BJP and the Modi government reject these allegations, insisting that they have followed the law of the land and the constitution.
For Dipke, 30, who left for the US two years ago to pursue higher studies in public relations, it has been a quick turn of events as he finds himself leading a political movement out of nowhere. In his interview with Al Jazeera last month, Dipke said he felt a responsibility for the overwhelming response his initiative has garnered.
Standing exhausted from the heat, Dipke handed over the mic and fell back against a wall to drink water, tossing his remaining bottle towards the crowd. “I love you, Abhijeet,” a young protester shouted. Several protesters, wearing a cockroach mask, turned up with roses or bouquets in their hands and carried books, as Dipke’s party had asked them to on social media.
“To everyone who believes that Indian youth only post on social media, come down here and see this,” Dipke said later, now donning the Indian cricket team’s blue jersey. “And to those who think we will go away after shouting, I want to say: we are cockroaches and we will stay until the minister resigns.”
‘Get on streets’
Mohammad Aftab, a 28-year-old gig worker from one of Delhi’s satellite townships, climbed a tree to catch a clearer view of Dipke.
He said he could not complete high school due to economic struggles, and instead delivers groceries for a living, with no social security net.
To leave a day’s work could mean no dinner, said Aftab, wearing a cockroach mask. “But still, I wanted to come here,” he told Al Jazeera.
“I could not go to school, but there are millions of students who did not sleep at night for their exams, to make a life for themselves,” he said. “It is our duty to stand up with them and demand that the criminal minister resign.”
The government has not yet commented on the protests.
Standing far from the crowd, Shivani, a police officer, who requested to be identified by her first name only as she feared repercussions from the government, watched the demonstration.
Her elder daughter is among the protesters – and she said she does not mind. “These children are worried for their future, and as a parent, I’m too,” she said. “There comes a time when one needs to get on streets, no?”
