How Gen Z in India turned an insult into a political uprising

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Bangladesh by the way was uh has been named uh the the first Gen Zed or Gen Z uh revolution. But those three Nepal uh Bangladesh Sri Lanka actually brought down governments in short order mass street protests led by u young people but with others then joining and actually brought down the rulers in all three countries in short order.

[00:00:29]Gen Zed in India are rebelling. Millions of young Indians have signed up to a movement that's pushing against the unfair advantages that their elders have and they don't. And though the political movement they've joined is satirical, the cockroach Jantaa party has the Indian government worried.

[00:00:49]Today, international and political editor Peter Harcher discusses how serious a threat this movement is to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the other recent youthled movements.

[00:01:05]Welcome back, Peter.

[00:01:07]>> A pleasure to be here, Samantha.

[00:01:09]>> Okay. I can't wait to get into this with you cuz Peter, India has a new political superstar and it's a cockroach. What is happening?

[00:01:19]Yes. Well, this sort of came out of nowhere as of the time we speak. This happened only 11 days ago in India. Uh and it started um in a very sort of unexpected way when the chief judge of India likened unemployed youth to cockroaches.

[00:01:37]>> There are youngsters like cockroaches.

[00:01:39]They they they don't get any employment.

[00:01:42]They don't have any place in profession.

[00:01:43]It turns out that sentiment was already running high, frustration was already strong and so an Indian uh postgrad student who happens to be living in the US jumped on that remark uh and started created a satirical political party called the cockroach janter party uh and its symbol is the cockroach which has now um become a real sensation. Now the cockroach janter party the CJP looks a real threat to India's traditional parties. Its message is simple. It says like the resilient cockroach the common people of India cannot be crushed.

[00:02:25]>> In just 3 days they got uh more than 3 million uh Indians joined the the satirical party which is not actually a party yet. uh and more than 22 million people followed followed the party on social media and made made the the 30-year-old guy who created the concept uh an instant star in India but the cockroach itself of course cockroach symbol which is the symbol of the party and one of its emblems is a picture of a cockroach wearing sunglasses uh munching through a lotus leaf which is the symbol of the ruling party of India the BJP of Narendra Modi. And so you'll notice the name of the cockroach janter party is the acronym for which is the CJP. So it's a it's a direct uh play on the BJP, the ruling party and it's created a lot of interest and a lot of sensation uh in India and around the world.

[00:03:25]>> Okay. Well, let's get into this because you say it's a satirical uh movement which it definitely is. I mean one of the images that I saw for the party, it isn't just a cockroach with sunnies on.

[00:03:35]Um, I didn't see the the chewing of the lotus, but I did see him with his well, I don't know if it's him, the cockroach with its arms sort of, you know, very jaunty crossed with a sort of like, you know, how dare you uh vibe. So, I guess the question is, is this a joke? Uh, because I also saw that it had a a tongue-in-cheek membership criteria which included being unemployed, lazy, chronically online, and having quote the ability to rant professionally. So, are they actually fighting for any real change? Like, what what is this about?

[00:04:09]>> Well, it did start as a joke, but because of the momentum that it's picked up and and the trouble it's caused for the ruling party, uh who which has essentially vindicated the seriousness of this movement by trying to block it.

[00:04:26]uh had its website taken down, its social media accounts blocked, denounced him uh denounced the founder of this movement, his name is Abajjit Dipkey, denounced Dipkkey as essentially um a tool of the Pakistani uh uh intelligence services and of course Pakistan being public enemy number one in India. Um all of which has has been resisted and refused, rejected uh by Dipkkey and his supporters. And uh he's like a cockroach as he says you've forgotten what we're best at doing which is survive.

[00:05:04]>> One should know where does cockroach exist? They exist in a place which is rotten.

[00:05:10]So is the system so rotten that the cockroach cockroaches are coming out in such a huge number? We have to think about that. So it's it did start as a joke but the momentum plus the official attempts to stifle it have only given it more momentum more credibility and more force. So now there's a movement uh to enshrine it as an actual political party a formal formally register it in India uh which is quite doable but you you ask me Samantha are they campaigning for change or is this just a joke? Well, uh, Dipkkey did put out a five-part, um, manifesto. He said that he's going to ask all the 22 followers, 22 million followers, uh, for suggestions as well.

[00:05:57]But the manifesto so far, uh, number one on the five-point manifesto that he put out initially was to block uh, retired Supreme Court judges from having cushy retirements.

[00:06:11]uh hence seeking a vengeance against the uh chief justice who made the cockroach comment but also seeking more representation for women in the parliament of India and the cabinet. At the moment there is a a quotota where a third of the seats in the lock subha the lower house are reserved for women. Um the cockroach party wants that to go to 50% in the cabinet and the and the parliament.

[00:06:35]Um other changes it's demanding are that the two biggest tycoons in India are uh forced to divest their media holdings to allow a genuine as the cockroach party puts it independent media to flourish instead. Although um it must be said India has a vibrant uh vast flourishing media sector. So it's hard to say that it's like that there's a North Korean-like grip on public debate in India. It's it's astonishingly uh vigorous uh the media in India. But there some of the key demands that the party has made so far >> and are do you reckon they're going to fight for um I guess help with with labor because you spoke to a research fellow at the Australia India Institute.

[00:07:25]This is Dr. Batista Prakash uh who told you that there are real problems facing India's Gen Z in particular and unemployment is massive right so can you just sort of briefly I guess walk us through the on the ground problems that the youth in India and the youth population is massive right in India so what problems are they facing >> yeah so it's the world's most populous country it overtook China last year more than 1.4 4 billion people and of those most just over 50% are under the age of 30. So it has a tremendous uh tremendously young demographic profile.

[00:08:01]The problems that you mention uh Samantha are very real. The biggest is unemployment youth unemployment as you've said the official unemployment rate uh in the formal workforce is 16% although the underlying figure is thought to be larger. uh but even the formal figure for unemployed graduates in India is a whopping 40%.

[00:08:26]uh so every year the country turns out just over 5 million uh university graduates but fewer than 3 million are able to find jobs. So it's a cumulative problem where that that the ranks of the unemployed just continue to rise. So it's a middle middle class problem as well. Um, and it it as you can tell from the instant take up and momentum of the cockroach uh party, the frustrations are real and have built up to quite a quite a point. So he the cockroach party really was the the flame that lit the tinder that has built up through youth unemployment, the perception that young people will not be able to get the future that they'd imagined. And it also I should add that the the whole the whole um youth unemployment uh slack growth for young people started postco.

[00:09:19]So it existed pre-COVID but co as it did with many other things around the world aggravated the problem.

[00:09:26]>> Okay. So I mean could this have the power to bring down Narendra Mod's government? Uh we know that Narendra Modi has been in power for a very long time. Lost a bunch of seats I believe at the last election. So I guess yeah tell us what sort of impact this could have on him and his party.

[00:09:41]>> Well there's two two points here I think. The first is that the reason that the government has been instantly edgy about this and according to Indian media reports the the intelligence bureau of India uh warned the government that this did have uh the potential to destabilize the country uh that it had the potential to be an anarchctic political movement.

[00:10:04]uh and it's so that that's the first point is that the intelligence services and the government have been anxious about it. Uh and one of the reasons that they've been so anxious is that three of India's neighbors neighboring countries have had youthled protests large scale that actually brought down three governments. So India the Indian government was as you'd expect in those circumstances very alert to this as a potential danger. But Mod's position is very secure. Uh as things currently stand, this protest movement would have to would have to grow enormously and exponentially. Uh India's uh prime minister has the highest approval rating of any democratic country in the world.

[00:10:48]It's around 70% even though he has been in power a long time. He doesn't have to face an election for three years, a general election for three years. But he just in the same week that the cockroach janter party was the CJP was created uh the BJP the ruling party of Modi actually had a stunning political success where in local elections across the country it uh dominated and won almost twothirds of the available uh available seats. So the party is strongly entrenched. Modi is very popular which makes it very unlikely that this will actually bring down the government but you know who knows with such a youth profile uh in the demographic of the country uh with so much time ahead of us and with very real problems in India uh ahead anything could happen but it's more likely because India is um such a democratic country that the cockroach party if it persists formalizes and gathers momentum could fit in with the larger democratic system and and uh find its way through uh the larger system rather than in some some other countries where there's been an authoritarian system where there has been no democratic adjustment to accommodate a new party or a protest party. India might well be able to accommodate this >> within its rich and varied democratic uh movement. Yeah, >> it is absolutely fascinating and I wanted to just pick up on something you just said which is that you know while Narendra Mod's government is very strong part of the reason that it's perhaps been spooked by this cockroach revolt is that uh the governments in in recent areas in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal uh were all forced out of power by massive youthled protests only since 2022. This is what you you've just written. So, I was just wondering if you could perhaps place these latest youth results and uh revolts in a historical context for me because as we know, history is absolutely littered with youthled revolts that sparked massive change. So, immediately there's a few that come to mind. There was the the famous protests in Paris in May 1968.

[00:12:59]They were sparked by student outrage over overpopulated universities and it led to uh I think the economy grown to a halt. the president uh Charles de Gaulle resigned the next year. I think a lot to do with that uh and it led to increased labor rights and wages and of course then we've got like the civil rights movement uh in the United States in particular where that was also started by youth movements and that led to uh the dismantling of legally um sh sanctioned racial segregation of course and there's all kinds of other there's the Arab Spring, there's Vietnam, there's all kinds of things we could mention. So I'm just wondering these particular revolts, the one that's happening in India, if it picks up momentum, the ones that we've mentioned in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, like are could they be as consequential as these previous ones that have gone down in history?

[00:13:50]>> Well, it's very early days, so the potential is there. Maybe it'll fizzle out. Uh perhaps it will gain momentum.

[00:13:58]The uh the founder Dipkey is still living in the US. There have been requests for him to move back to India to get this party formally started. He's resisting. He says that he'll be arrested the moment he fears he'll be arrested or killed. He's had death threats the moment he sets foot back in India. Uh his family home in India has been surrounded by the police for days now. They say it's to protect the family, but uh Dipkkey thinks it's probably more likely to intimidate him.

[00:14:27]Uh so it's a very uh volatile moment uh in a in a febrile uh democratic system.

[00:14:36]The first two case studies that you mentioned there, uh, Samantha, Paris, May 68, um, and the US, they're good examples of how a democracy, uh, you know, there was plenty of, um, plenty of turmoil in those cases, but ultimately the democratic structures of those countries adapted and adopted to those demands, and they were they didn't turn out to be revolutions, although the the Paris 68 riots were certainly intended to be to bring about a revolution.

[00:15:08]But the system adapted. The three most recent ones in South South Asia that you mentioned, Bangladesh by the way was uh has been named uh the the first Gen Zed or Gen Z uh revolution. But those three Nepal uh Bangladesh, Sri Lanka actually brought down governments in short order.

[00:15:30]mass street protests led by u young people uh gen let's call it gen zed uh roughly but with others then joining and actually brought down the rulers in all three countries in short order so they have been enormously consequential the the full effects we we we have yet to see takes a while to to see the aftermath of these things but look I would mention two uh other case studies in our region in Asia in the in the uh Asia Pacific in recent decades that have been had profound and permanent uh uh effects. Two of these two I just happened to be at reporting on at the time. One was South Korea which was a military dictatorship.

[00:16:17]Um the dictatorship of Chandu Huan was the general. Um student university students there had been uh holding protests and riots on university campuses for years and then just one day the whole country was suddenly jacked of this system. reached its breaking point and I remember being in the street with a gas mask on reporting um and the students were the student protests were blocked at both ends of the street and the riot police were going to move in and basically uh arrest them and dis disperse them. something magical happened and all the office workers in the buildings on either side of the street and the shoppers who were out just doing their their you know department store shopping and all the rest of it they all joined the students when they saw they were about to be crushed by the police and the army uh and suddenly a student protest became a national uprising and the police backed off. Chandu Huan was gone within days and it became a robust democracy to this day. That was 88. The other one is Indonesia uh 98 a decade later later when Sahhat after 30 years in power former general running an order a violent autocratic uh repression was brought down by economic crisis the Asian economic crisis uh and a student-led protest movement again uh the reform movement which converted in short order Indonesia into the the thriving democracy it is today. So youthled political movements, protest movements have been the vanguard of social conscience and political change in many countries for many centuries. So um we'll see is the is the short answer.

[00:17:56]>> That is incredible, Peter. I mean it's enough to even make one feel inspired during these dark times. Well, anybody uh who's feeling disempowered, you know, disenfranchised, helpless can look at these examples and take some inspiration. Absolutely. Democratic systems are better at responding. Of course, by their very nature, they're more flexible. And if you look at Australia today, uh, where you've got, um, a lot of young people feeling disenfranchised, you are seeing the government, the Albanesei government, uh, attempting to, uh, accommodate those concerns, particularly the the feeling of, uh, hopelessness about ever being able to buy a home. Home ownership, property ownership has been, uh, at the center of middle class uh, movements and the creation of middle class and the creation of stable societies.

[00:18:48]uh for centuries and the Abene government does not want to see the next generations um arising without without the ability or the hope of being able to buy real estate. So hence the reforms to the tax system which are today roing the political system in Australia.

[00:19:08]>> Peter, I'm so glad you you mentioned this because I'd love to wrap up just by asking you. You're there, you're in CRA, you're in Parliament House as we speak, uh walking the quarters of power as it were. So is there any suggestion is there any feeling that you know that Albany that the government is perhaps looking to these revolts uh in Asia and elsewhere and thinking hm do you think our our young people are going to get inspired you know might they attempt something like this and might we sort of you know are we are we are we coming to this moment with enough reform you know are we heading this off or could we see ourselves similarly threatened >> well two points um I'm a bit of twopoint specialist today, aren't I, Samantha?

[00:19:49]But >> I love that.

[00:19:50]>> The first point is the results of a a worldwide poll by the Gallup polling organization published in February of 107 countries and it found that the universal concern everywhere is material well-being um of of individuals and families and households above other things uh you know whether it's immigration or um whatever it is. So the universal universality of inflation um cost of living pressures is around the world. The group the demographic feeling that most acutely around the the whole world is younger people gen zed in particular and the countries in which it's most acutely felt um about um in the developed uh democracies are three.

[00:20:38]Number one is Ireland. Number two is Australia and number three is Canada. Uh so the disgruntlement the dissatisfaction in Australia is uh by on comparative basis extremely high among the younger generation. So uh is the government concerned that there will be protests on the street? No. Uh have they paid close attention to developments in India, South Asia and elsewhere? No. We are as usual in our insular uh self-p preoccupied mode. But the the sheer uh extent of the dissatisfaction spread through our society has motivated the government to organically um undertake these reforms even without the prospect of a mass of cockroaches uh taking over the streets of Canra.

[00:21:31]>> Fascinating, Peter. Okay. Well, we'll see what develops from here. So, as always, thank you so much.

[00:21:37]>> A pleasure, Samantha.