We want to move beyond elections, face of India's 'cockroach' movement tells BBC

We want to move beyond elections, face of India's 'cockroach' movement tells BBC

In less than three months, 30-year-old Abhijeet Dipke - the founder and public face of India’s Gen Z "cockroach" protests - has gained the sort of fame usually associated with a breakout actor or cricketer.

In politics or activism, unless you come from a powerful family, that kind of recognition can take years - if it arrives at all.

"It's been a rollercoaster ride. Two-three months ago, nobody knew me. I was just in my room in Boston watching documentaries or attending lectures," said Dipke, who recently finished a master's in public relations at Boston University.

"Now I'm here surrounded by hundreds of people, by cameras. It's a bit overwhelming."

Around his hometown of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar in the western state of Maharashtra, Dipke is regularly surrounded by people eager to shake his hand or pose for a photo.

If the attention unsettles him, it does not show. Perhaps that is because politics is not entirely unfamiliar to him: before moving to the US, Dipke spent three years working with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), an opposition party that emerged from an anti-corruption movement.

Then, on 16 May, Dipke posted something on X that would alter his life: "What if all cockroaches come together?"

He was reacting to a comment by India's Chief Justice Surya Kant, who had compared unemployed young people to cockroaches. Kant later said his remarks had been misunderstood and were aimed specifically at young people using fake degrees, not the country's youth more broadly.

But that explanation did little to calm the anger.

Dipke said he wrote the post while playing a video game. "It was totally spontaneous. I had no idea it would become such a big movement," he said.

Spurred by tens of thousands of replies, he joined a small group of former colleagues and activists to create the satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a name that riffs on both the chief justice's remark and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Along with support, Dipke and the campaign were heavily trolled by government supporters. Their website and X account were briefly blocked in India.

Dipke says that after writing to X and to India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to ask why the account had been taken down, he received a notice saying it had been withheld under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, which permits the government to block online information "in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State".

The ministry did not respond to BBC questions about the matter, but The Indian Express and other media reported officials as saying the sites had been blocked because of "national security concerns". Dipke says that was what prompted him to return to India.

"I took the decision to come back to India when I was called a national security threat by my own government. That really hurt me. Isn't my government supposed to stand by me when I'm abroad?" he said.

"I decided I need to go back to my country to show I'm not a national security threat. I love my country, just not in the way that you [the government] want."

The cockroach protests were among the biggest mass agitations the Modi government has faced in recent years

Going back was not a simple choice. In recent years, activists and journalists critical of the government have faced police questioning, legal cases and, in some cases, imprisonment.

Dipke says a lawyer he consulted advised him not to return, warning that he could be detained under the National Security Act (NSA), which allows detention without formal charge or trial. The government has consistently denied taking retaliatory action, but fear of reprisal remains.

"I won't lie. I was afraid. I had sleepless nights thinking if I go back to India, my life will change. But if I sit in the US, all these people who have followed the Cockroach Janta Party, they will feel betrayed - that 'he didn't come to India, he just kept hiding in the US'," said Dipke.

His family was worried as well.

"My mother broke down over a phone call. She said, 'Why are you coming back? They might put you in jail or attack you.' I told her I can't backtrack now because people will mock me."

The cockroach protests were not the first major agitation Modi's government has confronted. Thousands protested against a controversial citizenship law in 2019 and against farm laws introduced in 2020.

Those movements were often cast by government supporters as serving specific religious or political interests, or as efforts to tarnish India's image.

Efforts to dismiss the cockroach protests in similar fashion, however, found less success for several reasons.

Despite India's strong economic growth, education and jobs remain major worries for young Indians. A recent government report found that just over 8% of graduates get jobs matching their skills. The unemployment rate for graduates is 29.1% - nine times higher than for people who never went to school.

And after more than 12 years in power, Modi's government is facing anti-incumbency in a way it did not in 2020.

But, importantly, the CJP also tapped into an issue with wide appeal.

Around the time the campaign started, the national medical entrance exam was cancelled after a question-paper leak. The scandal struck a chord with students and middle-class families, crossing religious and caste lines. More than 20 students were reported to have died by suicide in its aftermath.

Dipke says concentrating on the leak was not a tactical choice, but a response to students who contacted the CJP.

"I was speaking to at least a hundred followers every day, and most of them were complaining about the paper leak. There was this core frustration around it," he said.

Dipke says the CJP has now grown into a pressure group seeking to hold those in power accountable

When the CJP first demonstrated at Delhi's Jantar Mantar on 6 June, the crowd was in the hundreds, but far too small to be seen as a serious movement on the ground.

"But the longer we sat, the more people started trusting us," Dipke said. He credits activist Sonam Wangchuk's 26-day hunger strike with helping build momentum.

Then came a turning point.

On 20 July, when protesters tried to march toward parliament, police and paramilitary forces used tear gas, batons and pellet guns to break them up. Dozens of protesters were injured; the government says dozens of police personnel were also hurt.

Images of young protesters being met with force sparked a wave of support. Thousands began turning up at Jantar Mantar and protests spread to other cities.

Opposition parties lined up behind the CJP. Asked whether he challenged their leaders over why they had not taken up students' concerns more forcefully, Dipke said he had not.

"This was the first time I was organising a protest so I was just grateful to them for coming out in support of us."

The government suddenly found itself on the defensive. On two consecutive nights, Modi released videos addressing the country's youth, saying tough action would be taken against those involved in exam leaks. But they triggered more backlash because he was not offering what protesters wanted: the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

It seemed almost unimaginable that Pradhan, a senior BJP leader who had played a key role in recent regional elections, would be forced out.

On 25 July, however, he resigned, saying it was "to ensure that anti-national elements do not take advantage of the situation".

Modi's government had backed down before - most notably when it repealed three farm laws in 2021 after a year of protests. But this retreat came astonishingly fast, at the hands of a movement led by people who had been largely unknown only weeks earlier.

Dipke was on stage at the protest site when the news reached him. He dropped to his knees, then jumped up, punched the air and shouted: "We have done it."

Security forces used batons, tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd on 20 July - the day of CJP's march to parliament

Now that the excitement of that moment has faded, the CJP faces harder questions - especially how to keep the attention it won.

Its latest campaign is focused on conditions in government schools in rural India.

"What I'm hoping to accomplish is that children in rural India should at least get a dignified education," said Dipke during a visit to a school in Maharashtra's Hingoli district.

The school had no toilet for female students and expired food packets were being used to prepare lunches. At another school, cracks ran through the floors, walls and ceiling.

The campaign has drawn some attention, but it feels more improvised than a carefully planned national movement, and the CJP still looks like a loose pressure group - something Dipke says is intentional.

"People have limited politics just to elections and political parties. We want to move beyond that," he said.

"What we are here for is a cultural transformation where people understand their rights, their duties, and how to hold the government accountable no matter which party comes to power."

The CJP's latest campaign focuses on the condition of government-run schools in rural India

There are also questions about what the movement chooses to take on.

Dipke is a Dalit, from a community once regarded as untouchable and placed at the bottom of India's rigid caste hierarchy. Quotas in jobs and education for lower castes remain deeply divisive.

Over the past decade, India has also seen rising Islamophobia and widening religious divides.

Some critics say the CJP is steering clear of contentious issues affecting Muslims and lower-caste Indians for fear of alienating Hindu supporters. Dipke rejects that.

"I was really happy when, at Jantar Mantar, I used to chant 'Jai Bhim', thousands of other people followed," he said, referring to a slogan linked to Dalit icon BR Ambedkar. "We were also chanting 'Hindu-Muslim politics will not work anymore'."

For now, the bigger question is whether the CJP can turn the extraordinary burst of anger that propelled it into national prominence into something enduring.

For Dipke, a self-described introvert suddenly pushed into public life, the challenge is also deeply personal.

"I'm the kind of person who would rather spend most of the day alone in my room," he said.

"But now I'm out here among hundreds of people, doing what I must to keep this movement alive - and to sustain the hope they have placed in us."