For some time now, Indian youth have been restless and with most mainstream avenues for democratic protest and dissent effectively shut down, it was like a pressure cooker without safety valves. The sensational emergence of the Cockroach Janata Party in the yet-to-be fully controlled virtual space was something that was waiting to happen.
A stray comment by the Chief Justice of India was akin to throwing a spark into the tinder box. The looming economic crisis, the unending spectre of youth unemployment, the bungling of NEET examinations and the inability to hold the government accountable provided the perfect setting for a satirical platform to metamorphose overnight into an unstoppable, potent political force.
The present virtual rebellion can be traced to the disenchantment with the government whose development claims began to ring hollow. The palpable fear of brutal repression effectively forced people into silence. Every protest was suppressed with police violence, arbitrary arrests on trumped-up charges under draconian laws and the repeated denial of bail by courts which people perceived to be compromised. Secondly, the parliamentary opposition and civil society organisations have been effectively neutralised, thus depriving people of options to protest peacefully and negotiate with the government.
In the present instance, the government responded in the only way it knew – that is, by unleashing varying degrees of repression. Since it was a virtual movement, the government flexed its legal muscle to get X (formerly Twitter) to suspend the account of the fledgling entity. The security agencies swung into action to dub the CJP a threat to “national security”. The old trick of using the IT Cell to demonise the movement and create an atmosphere in which people acquiesce to its strong-arm tactics was deployed once again. But this time, the dirty tricks department seems to be failing, indicating a deepening crisis of credibility.
Secondly, the numbers are too vast, and the movement is decentralised. Moreover, it is both virtual and relatively faceless. If nearly two crore people align with a movement, it is not going to be easy for government agencies to unleash their brute force on them. So far, it has been easy for the government to suppress on-ground protest movements with a clear organisational structure. In the present scenario, the government appears to be hopelessly out of its depth.
When youth protests rocked the smaller neighbouring nations such as Nepal and Bangladesh, even astute observers dismissed such a possibility in India. Despite a setback in the 2024 general elections, a string of victories in subsequent assembly elections, and the BJP’s continued vice-like grip over narrative building and its power to suppress dissent ruthlessly, the ruling party could have been led to believe in its invincibility and ruled out any possibility of GenZ protest.
Ideally, the government should come to terms with the changing realities and acknowledge the genuine frustrations and resentment among the youth. Then it has to do the unthinkable – that is, take the youth into confidence and engage with them in a meaningful dialogue. But this goes against its grain, its self-righteousness and smug confidence, its repressive impulses and its carefully curated strongman persona.
Whether the movement poses a credible challenge to the establishment or not, it will definitely expose the chinks in the government’s armour and provide a glimpse of the ruling party’s feet of clay.