🔶 How the “Cockroach” youth movement in India became a fresh headache for Modi?

🔶 How the “Cockroach” youth movement in India became a fresh headache for Modi?

🔻 A report by Murali Krishnan

As tens of thousands of supporters of a movement—dubbed, in a satirical way, the “Cockroach People’s Party (CJP)”—marched toward the Parliament of India in New Delhi on Monday, July 20 (29 Tir), riot police resorted to tear gas and batons to disperse them.

Police in India’s capital said that in clashes between protesters and security forces, 60 protesters and 118 police officers were injured. At the same time as the violence, mobile internet was cut in parts of the city, including around the venue for the rally at “Jantar Mantar.”

Protesters are calling for the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan, India’s education minister. Earlier in 2026, officials in this country canceled this fateful exam after the leak of entrance exam questions for medical fields—a move that affected the lives of millions of students and sparked a wave of anger across India.

The “Cockroach People’s Party” began last May as an online campaign and quickly turned into a street movement of “Gen Z.”