The call to India’s young people was simple: “Get ready to come out onto the streets of Delhi to protest peacefully.” Thousands answered it. On Saturday, the “Cockroach Janata Party” (CJP) held its first public protest. The party was essentially born of mockery and satire, and the satirical initiative quickly gained wide popularity.
CJP founder Abhijit Deepke, who flew in from the United States on Saturday morning to lead the lively protest, said: “The young people of this country will no longer be afraid; they will fight.” Deepke said: “To the government we may be mere insects, but we are alive and able to fight for our rights.”
Gathering under heavy police guard, many of the Gen-Z and millennial participants hope that a youth-led movement could gain momentum in India, like the ones that brought down governments in neighbouring Nepal and Sri Lanka. The wave behind the CJP has surprised many — especially Deepke, who only a few weeks ago was living a quiet life in the US as an Indian graduate of Boston University.
At a Supreme Court hearing, India’s chief justice had compared the country’s jobless youth to “parasites” and “cockroaches.” Angered by the remark, Deepke made a joking call on social media: “What if all the cockroaches united?”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report