‘Cockroach’ Protests Signal Young India’s Growing Impatience With Modi’s Ways
The successful protests may have ended for now, but Gen Z Indians have made clear they don't revere the prime minister as previous generations have – and that could be good for democracy.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has held public office for nearly a quarter of a century, has been humbled by a band of protesters, most of whom have not even spent that much time on the planet yet. For the first time in almost eight years, public pressure has forced a powerful minister in his cabinet to step down.
The development assumes greater significance because the social group that managed to pull this off has never possessed bargaining power of this sort in Indian history. A ragtag coalition of young Indians – under the banner of the “Cockroach Janta Party” – that somehow stuck together and stayed on the streets of Delhi for five weeks through the scorching summer heat to demand accountability for corruption in India’s public examination system has made Modi blink.