{"id":218479,"date":"2026-07-27T19:32:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T19:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/monday-briefing-how-the-cockroach-protests-have-exposed-the-cracks-in-indias-government-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T19:32:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T19:32:19","slug":"monday-briefing-how-the-cockroach-protests-have-exposed-the-cracks-in-indias-government-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/monday-briefing-how-the-cockroach-protests-have-exposed-the-cracks-in-indias-government-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday briefing: \u200bHow the Cockroach \u200bprotests \u200bhave expose\u200bd the \u200bcracks in \u200bIndia\u2019s government – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

In today\u2019s newsletter: Across \u200bthe country, a \u200byounger generation is turning private disillusionment into public defiance\u200b against a government that once felt untouchable
Good morning. As flames engulfed parts of France and Spain this weekend, in India, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, was trying to put out a very different kind of fire. Thousands of people arrived in Delhi on Saturday to demand the resignation of his education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan. When he stepped down<\/a> in the early afternoon, the protests turned into a triumphant block party.
But the Cockroach protests that have swept through India this summer<\/a> are about much more than a single minister. They have humiliated Modi and undermined the indomitable power of his Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) that has ruled India for the past 12 years. They\u2019re also a lesson in using humour to political advantage.
Modi likes to present himself as an infallible messiah<\/a>, but young people have mocked the prime minister online and in the streets, calling him a \u201c56-inch monkey\u201d (a reference to Modi boasting about his ample 56-inch chest), and parodied his social media addresses. \u201cHating Modi is cool on the internet now, after years of criminalising dissent,\u201d one told a reporter.
Now the protesters have secured a victory, will their calls for revolution continue? For this morning\u2019s newsletter, I spoke to our south Asia correspondent Hannah Ellis-Petersen<\/strong><\/em>, who has been reporting on the \u201cCockroaches\u201d in Delhi<\/a>, about what their anger stems from and what it means for the BJP. That\u2019s after a roundup of the biggest stories of the weekend.
Wild fires <\/strong><\/em>| Authorities in France battled to contain a huge wildfire<\/a> near Bordeaux in the south-west as Spain\u2019s prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, warned Spain and the Iberian peninsula were suffering the effects of the climate emergency.
Germany <\/strong><\/em>| A man suspected of driving a van into a crowd near Berlin\u2019s Pride festival then going on a knife rampage in an Islamist terror attack has been shot dead by police<\/a>, German officials have said.
Iran <\/strong><\/em>| The US has paused strikes on Iran<\/a> for a second night as top military officials advised Donald Trump to halt his bombing campaign, and diplomatic negotiations have continued to avoid a return to all-out war.
UK politics <\/strong><\/em>| Britain\u2019s foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, is to indicate he will put the climate crisis and overseas development at the heart of UK international relations<\/a> by taking up the country\u2019s seat on the board at the World Bank.
UK news <\/strong><\/em>| Five Palestine Action activists face being sentenced as terrorists<\/a> for breaking windows and throwing red paint at a branch of Barclays Bank in Lancashire.
It started as a sardonic joke<\/a>. On 16 May, Abhijeet Dipke, an Indian student at Boston University, posted on X: \u201cWhat if all cockroaches come together?\u201d It was a tongue-in-cheek response to India\u2019s chief justice, who had called unemployed young Indians \u201ccockroaches\u201d. Online, thousands of people responded to Dipke\u2019s message. Realising he had tapped into something big, Dipke flew to Delhi on 6 June and went to Jantar Mantar, its famous protest ground.
The protests drew young people from across the country, and the Cockroach Janta party (CJP) \u2013 a play on the BJP\u2019s name \u2013 created a website listing their demands, including reform of India\u2019s education system. India<\/a> has a young population who are better educated than ever before, but it has proven a weak point for the BJP, with the country\u2019s universities crumbling and its economy failing to provide jobs for many graduates. Millions of young people spend years prepping for gruelling public exams in the hope of securing a decent job, and their parents go into debt or sell their land to fund these studies.
To make matters worse, these exam papers are routinely leaked and sold to the highest bidder. \u201cAnyone rich enough can buy the answers,\u201d Hannah tells me. This is devastating for millions of young people, forcing them to retake tests for which they\u2019ve already studied. After a medical entrance exam was leaked in May, at least 12 students took their own lives; some left notes behind saying they could not bear the thought of resitting the test. The leaks are a potent symbol of institutional corruption, inflaming the anger that young people feel towards a political system that is failing them.
Thief, thief<\/strong>
Sonam Wangchuk, an engineer and education reformer from Ladakh, joined the protest on 28 June and declared he would go on indefinite hunger strike until the education minister resigned. \u201cThe idea of a hunger strike has a particularly powerful resonance in India,\u201d says Hannah. \u201cGandhi put his life on the line several times with his hunger strikes for independence.\u201d
Delhi police forcibly removed Wangchuk from Jantar Mantar on 18 July and took him to hospital, supposedly for the sake of his health. Footage of his hospital stay went viral, and the Cockroach party called for a march on parliament. On Monday, tens of thousands of people started to fill Delhi\u2019s streets. \u201cIn my whole time covering India, I\u2019ve never seen so many people turning out,\u201d Hannah says. The mood was jubilant, but by the afternoon, things had turned violent as the police began firing teargas and using batons on the protesters.
Despite that, many of the protesters stayed put, and Hannah went back to Jantar Mantar in the following days. \u201cIt was the <\/em>place to be in India,\u201d she says. \u201cThere were people camping out, delivery guys bringing pizza and biryani, people cooking food. It had become about more than just the education minister resigning. More, even than education.\u201d
The protesters\u2019 very public displays of contempt \u2013 graffiti of Modi\u2019s name under the image of a urinating dog; people stamping on a poster of his face and chanting \u201cthief, thief\u201d<\/a> \u2013 would have seemed unimaginable just two weeks ago. \u201cPeople were just revelling in the opportunity to speak their mind,\u201d Rahul Bhatia, a writer and author of The New India, who attended the protests on Saturday, tells me. \u201cIt was delightful. It made people think: things are possible.\u201d
Modi lost control of the narrative<\/strong>
Pradhan\u2019s resignation is a major victory for the Cockroach protesters. He is a Modi loyalist and former organiser for the RSS, the Hindu supremacist group closely affiliated with the BJP (for more on its sinister ideology, it\u2019s worth reading this fascinating 2020 piece<\/a> by Samanth Subramanian). \u201cIt creates a crack in the BJP\u2019s armour,\u201d Hannah says. Modi has projected an image of total authority, but this is one of the first instances where he has bent to popular will. He demands unflinching loyalty from his ministers. They <\/strong>may now be questioning whether their positions are quite as secure as they thought.
India has taken a sharp turn towards autocracy under the BJP. Its main media channels are controlled by (or intensely favourable to) the government, and most of them gave minimal coverage to the protests, so young people resorted to sharing information and anti-government memes on social media. The party is no stranger to social media (its \u201ctroll army\u201d is adept at smearing digital opponents, and the government tried to shut down the Cockroach party\u2019s X account in early July), but it has lost control of the narrative.
Modi\u2019s last-ditch attempt to engage protesters with two reels he posted to his then 101 million Instagram followers on Thursday night (after which he gained over 1 million more, an impressive number, though still fewer than Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s 299 million) seemed contrived and stilted. \u201cHe has been crucified online for those videos,\u201d Hannah says.
Is this the start of something bigger?<\/strong>
It\u2019s tempting to compare the Cockroach protests to other youth uprisings<\/a> that have led to regime change<\/a> in south Asia. But \u201ca quick look at the outcome of people\u2019s movements in India is not encouraging,\u201d the novelist Arundhati Roy wrote in a recent piece<\/a> for Equator magazine. \u201cRevenge is surely being planned and will be visited on those [the government] sees as the main instigators.\u201d After people took to the streets in 2019 to protest against the BJP\u2019s controversial new citizenship act, the government swiftly outlawed gatherings in several places and detained protesters.
The real test of the BJP\u2019s power will come at election time. It is one of the world\u2019s richest and most formidable parties, and has attempted to capture India\u2019s electoral machinery, pushing for reforms to its voting map that would tilt power further in Modi\u2019s favour. In West Bengal, a state the BJP had never won before, it \u201crevised\u201d the electoral roll and excluded more than 9.1 million voters from the register, securing a decisive victory<\/a> earlier this year.
\u201cIt seems like the BJP has much less support than people actually think,\u201d Bhatia says. But after these protests, Modi will be doing all that he can to maintain his party\u2019s grip on power.
Monday | <\/strong>Andrew and Tristan Tate are due back in the Florida court where they\u2019re fighting their extradition to the UK, to face rape and sex-trafficking charges.
Tuesday | <\/strong>Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy are expected to be among those attending the Washington DC memorial service for the late South Carolina senator and Trump ally Lindsey Graham.
Thursday |<\/strong> People will go to the polls to elect the next mayor of Greater Manchester, who will replace Andy Burnham.
To enshittification, we can now add the idea of decadence without pleasure<\/strong>: \u201cFor anyone with an Internet connection and a little discretionary income, the contemporary moment offers a superabundance of seductive distractions. Why then the pervasive mood of emptiness<\/a>?\u201d Truly, what a time to be alive. Toby Moses, head of newsletters<\/strong><\/em>
The world is approaching \u201cplutocratic collapse\u201d. That\u2019s the view of the French economist Gabriel Zucman<\/strong>, and I\u2019m inclined to agree. I enjoyed Will Dunn\u2019s recent profile<\/a> of him in the New Statesman (\u00a3). Hettie<\/strong><\/em>
Add shingles<\/strong> to the long list of things millennial women need to worry about \u2013 Emily Retter has looked<\/a> at why the excruciating disease is on the rise. Toby<\/strong><\/em>
Sign up to First Edition<\/span>
Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters
after newsletter promotion
Tour de France <\/strong><\/em>| Tadej Pogacar took a record-equalling fifth win<\/a> in the Tour de France on Sunday, joining the all-time greats, as Mathieu van der Poel won a frantic final stage in Paris.
Commonwealth Games <\/strong><\/em>| Adam Ramsay-Peaty is ready to bounce back<\/a> after his 100m breaststroke bronze at the Commonwealth Games. He said: \u201cThe last 24 hours have been a bit of a whirlwind, but I\u2019m really happy with that.\u201d
Formula One <\/strong><\/em>| Lando Norris won the Hungarian Grand Prix<\/a> with an assured drive for McLaren at the Hungaroring, his and the team\u2019s first victory of the year.
\u201cMiliband vows to give UK \u2018global leadership\u2019 role on climate crisis\u201d, is the Guardian<\/strong>\u2019s front page today.
The Times<\/strong> says \u201cTeen anxiety pays more than job\u201d, and the Telegraph<\/strong> also has \u201cPM to crack down on youth benefits\u201d. Still on politics, The Mail<\/strong> goes with \u201cStreeting: I will quit if defence plan falls short\u201d, the i Paper<\/strong> says \u201cCouncil tax and stamp duty to be scrapped under Burnham plans\u201d, and the Express<\/strong> splashes \u201cPolice \u2018waste\u2019 millions on diversity schemes\u201d.
The FT<\/strong> splashes \u201cBiggest defence companies home in on start-ups for nimbler military tech\u201d, and the Mirror<\/strong> leads with its water safety campaign, saying \u201cNo child should die for a day at the seaside\u201d. Lastly, Metro<\/strong> splashes \u201cFly and dry\u201d on Gatwick\u2019s water outage.
How Palantir got into the NHS<\/strong>
Investigative journalist, Lucas Amin, <\/strong>reports on how the tech company<\/a> Palantir won a \u00a3330m contract with the NHS \u2026 and what happened once its software was introduced.
A bit of good news to remind you that the world\u2019s not all bad<\/em>
Restricting eating to a nine\u2011hour window and avoiding food for four hours before sleep may improve cognitive health in older adults<\/a>. In a six\u2011month trial of 47 women who were considered overweight or obese, both groups lost similar weight, but those following time\u2011restricted eating performed better on spatial planning and problem\u2011solving tests, with hints of improved memory.
Researchers suggest circadian rhythms, metabolism and inflammation may play a role. Experts stress the findings are preliminary and require larger, peer\u2011reviewed studies.
Prof Wendy Hall, the head of nutritional sciences at King\u2019s College London, said: \u201cTime-restricted eating is a plausible approach to supporting cognitive health in midlife\u201d.
Sign up here<\/a> for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday<\/strong>
And finally, the Guardian\u2019s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.
Quick crossword<\/a>
Cryptic crossword<\/a>
Wordiply<\/a><\/p>\n

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