India's Cockroach movement won. Now Modi is courting Gen Z

By Nadia Petrova · 2026-08-04

From a courtroom insult to a ministerial scalp

The word that started everything was spoken in a Supreme Court hearing room on 15 May 2026. Hearing a plea his bench treated as frivolous, Chief Justice Surya Kant said there were "already parasites of society who attack the system" and that there were "youngsters like cockroaches" who, finding no employment, turned to social media, journalism and RTI activism.^[1] The Chief Justice said days later that sections of the media had misquoted his oral observations, and that his criticism was aimed only at people entering professions on fake or bogus degrees rather than at Indian youth.^[2] By the time the transcript circulated on social media, it had detonated something no government talking point could defuse.

Within days, 30-year-old Abhijeet Dipke had founded the Cockroach Janta Party on X as biting satire, reclaiming the insult as a badge of identity.^[3] The joke spread fast. The movement that grew behind it was not funny to anyone inside the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. By mid-July, thousands of young Indians were camped at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, demanding accountability over a string of NEET-UG entrance exam paper leaks that had already driven several students to suicide.

The crackdown that made things worse

On 20 July, CJP-affiliated demonstrators attempted a march on Parliament. Delhi Police, citing prohibitory orders banning the gathering, moved in. About 300 people were taken to hospital and roughly 70 protesters were arrested as the confrontation ran through the afternoon. Police said at least half of those injured were security personnel, and most of those arrested were later released on bail.^[4] The images circulated within hours. For a government already on the defensive over the exam leaks, footage of police in riot gear facing down students carrying textbooks was a self-inflicted wound.

Activist Sonam Wangchuk had by then been on hunger strike for more than three weeks at Jantar Mantar, having joined the sit-in on 28 June and lending the movement a recognisable face outside Gen Z circles. On the night of 23 July, Wangchuk ended his fast on its 26th day in the presence of Union Ministers JP Nadda and Jitendra Singh, after the government put a set of assurances in writing.^[5] The government's decision to send two senior cabinet figures to witness that moment was itself an acknowledgement of the pressure the movement had built.

The resignation that ended the sit-in

Two days later, on 25 July 2026, the formal concession arrived. The President of India, acting on the Prime Minister's advice, accepted Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation from the Union Council of Ministers with immediate effect under Article 75(2) of the Constitution, and directed that Cabinet Minister Pralhad Joshi take charge of the Ministry of Education alongside his existing portfolio.^[6] CJP protesters at Jantar Mantar dismantled their camp within hours. What had begun as a viral joke about a judicial insult had ended with a serving minister losing his portfolio.

The resignation did not fix anything structural on its own. No new examination authority has been constituted, and the legislation promised to criminalise paper leaks had not passed as of the date Pradhan left office. What it did confirm, publicly and on the record, was that five weeks of sustained street pressure had forced a personnel change the government had resisted for months. Every opposition party and every protest organiser in India will have filed that data point carefully.

Modi's two-track response

Modi moved on both tracks simultaneously. On 23 July, two days before the resignation, Modi announced that fast-track courts would be set up to deal with examination paper-leak cases, saying nothing is more important than the welfare and future of India's youth and that the government would ensure swift and stringent punishment for those involved.^[7] The announcement pre-empted the resignation by 48 hours and was clearly intended to set the terms of any settlement.

The second track was less visible in official press releases. Modi has since appeared more often in short vertical videos made for Instagram and other platforms popular with young voters, and BJP lawmakers have picked up Gen Z slang in public appearances, including speeches in Parliament.^[8][9][10] Many of India's cabinet ministers are 60 or older. The CJP had not just forced a resignation; it had forced a recalibration of an entire communications strategy.

The demographic arithmetic

Under-25s make up roughly half of India's 1.4 billion population, a concentration of potential voters that dwarfs the youth cohort of any comparable democracy.^[8] The NEET-UG leaks cut directly into the most high-stakes moment in a young Indian's life: the examination that determines access to medical school and, in most aspirant families, the trajectory of an entire household's fortunes.

When the process is shown to be corruptible, the anger is not abstract. Dipke has said publicly that the CJP will remain a pressure group rather than register as a formal political party, keeping the movement nimble and avoiding the internal fractures that have destroyed comparable mobilisations elsewhere. A pressure group that can identify the next specific, winnable target is something considerably more durable than one without a defined demand.

What the movement still faces

AP reported that online activists aligned with Modi's party have sought to identify protesters and circulate their personal details in order to intimidate them.^[8] Indian outlets have described the same pattern since the 20 July clashes, with women among those targeted. The government has not been shown to have directed any of it. Whether that changes the behaviour of a movement whose founding act was to embrace an insult and turn it into a mascot is not yet clear.

What is already settled is the political accounting. Pradhan's ministerial career has ended. Modi has committed, by name and on the record, to institutional reform of examination administration. Fast-track courts are now stated government policy rather than a backbench proposal. If another paper leaks at the next NEET-UG cycle, the camp goes back up, and there are fewer concessions left to offer.

Nadia Petrova

Nadia Petrova writes about geopolitics, defence and foreign affairs. She is interested in how decisions made far away arrive on Australian shores.