Has the ‘Cockroach’ movement changed Indian politics?
EXPERT COMMENT
An Indian youth movement led by an organization calling itself ‘the Cockroach Janata Party’ (CJP) has called a halt to weeks of protest in India, after securing a significant victory: India’s government has acceded to its key demands, and the education minister has resigned.
The rise of the CJP has been remarkable. It began as an online satirical platform, responding to a remark by India’s chief justice in which he referred to the country’s unemployed youth as ‘cockroaches’. But since May it has swiftly developed into a real movement for political and social change, tapping into broader dissatisfaction among India’s young people.
The immediate trigger was a leak in the country’s medical examinations, which over 2.2 million students were due to sit in May. There were reports of several suicides associated with the decision to cancel and then reschedule the exams. The CJP began protests at a site in New Delhi near India’s Parliament, calling for the resignation of the education minister and compensation for affected families. Protests also took hold in other parts of the country.
Movement founder, Abhijit Dipke, returned to India in June to lead the demonstrations. The size of crowds grew from hundreds to thousands after a veteran activist, Sonam Wangchuk, who went on a hunger strike in support of the CJP demonstrations, was forcibly removed from a protest – ostensibly on health grounds. Then heavy-handed tactics by the police against the young protestors went viral, fuelling support for the demonstrations among opposition politicians, celebrities and other sections of Indian society.
With the CJP’s key demands met, the demonstrations have now died down. But the grievances that led to its emergence have not disappeared.
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