India's youth-led 'cockroach' protests expose cracks in Modi's government

Geoff Bennett:

They call themselves the Cockroaches after a top official compared India's jobless youth to the pests.

Now, days after their protests toppled the education minister, students say police are coming for them. What started as outrage over leaked medical entrance exams has turned into one of India's largest youth-led protest movements, challenging India's prime minister.

"News Hour" producer Zeba Warsi reports now on how India's Gen Z took on one of the world's most powerful leaders and what it means for the country's future.

Zeba Warsi:

The world's largest youth population just made their powerful government buckle under pressure. Beneath the celebration was something remarkable, India's youth discovering the power of their own voice.

Woman (through interpreter):

The government has messed with the wrong Gen Z people.

You can break bodies, but not baddies.

Abhijeet Dipke, Cockroach Party Founder:

It's a victory for the Constitution of India. It's a victory for the people of India. And it's a defeat for the dictator.

Zeba Warsi:

That's Abhijeet Dipke, a graduate student at Boston University who sparked a movement from an insult after India's chief justice compared unemployed young people to cockroaches. Dipke launched the satirical Cockroach Janta Party, or CJP, a play on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling BJP.

Today, its Instagram page has grown to over 25 million followers, more than twice that of the BJP. It all began with a leak of a national medical school entrance exam taken by two million aspiring medical students across the country.

It's an exam they can prepare to take for years with private tutors and offers a way out of poverty for those who do well. The decision to invalidate the test results was unbearable for many students, like Pradeep Kumar (ph). His mother, Sushila Devi, says her son was so distressed that he took his own life.

Sushila Devi, Mother of Student Who Died By Suicide (through interpreter): He felt that if the exam was held again, then he may or may not be able to do so well. There was already so much death burden on his father, he just decided to die.

Zeba Warsi:

More than 20 other young students made the same tragic decision. Their unfulfilled dreams have become a generation's grief. That turned to anger. Tens of thousands of students took to the streets, calling themselves Cockroaches, demanding the dismissal of the education minister.

Last week, they marched toward the Parliament. The government responded with a violent crackdown, beating unarmed students with batons, using tear gas and even pellet guns. Students, journalists, and witnesses gathered video to document and verify the attacks on a digital platform that became known as The Protest Record.

International human rights organizations have called out the Indian government for using excessive force. And if the government's goal was to empty the streets, it had the opposite effect. The protest started in New Delhi and quickly spread across the country. Indian politicians who opposed Prime Minister Modi, including opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, backed the students, demanding accountability for what they called a brutal clampdown.

For weeks, the revolution was not televised, as most mainstream media in India support the government. But news spread on social media, with tens of thousands of Instagram Reels watched by millions. Students can be seen mocking the police force that beat them.

And the posts turned protesters into Instagram celebrities. Analysts say India has witnessed widespread protests before, but this moment feels different.

(Chanting)

Zeba Warsi:

India's Gen Z are blaming him for the police violence and criticizing his divisive politics.

Narendra Modi, Indian Prime Minister:

Thank you, friends.

Zeba Warsi:

It took seven weeks of protests, but Modi finally relented and promised to get to the bottom of the medical exam leaks. This weekend, the education minister resigned.

Umang Gupta, Former Modi Supporter (through interpreter):

He fears losing power. They know, if this protest goes on for a long time, the government can fall.

Zeba Warsi:

Raised in a family of devoted Modi supporters, 22-year-old Umang Gupta once led her university's chapter of Modi's BJP Party. But its crackdown on the Cockroach protesters changed everything for her.

Umang Gupta (through interpreter):

I have joined the protest against my parents' wishes. So many kids have stood up to their parents and they are getting beaten up. They are being called terrorists.

Zeba Warsi:

She said India's youth is now determined to take action against what they see as democratic backsliding.

Umang Gupta (through interpreter):

When there is a fire within, we can stay hungry too. When there is courage within, we are unstoppable. That is the power of every youth. The youth is the future.

Zeba Warsi:

The Cockroach Movement may be over for now, but, today, its leaders said dozens of students are still being targeted by police across the country, particularly from minority groups. Students say protests will resume unless those cases are dropped.

Neha Bora, National President, All India Student Association:

Nobody believes that this victory is because of the benevolence of the government. People are very, very, very frustrated even now.

Zeba Warsi:

Student leader Neha Bora spent 23 days on a hunger strike and emerged as one of the movement's leading voices.

Neha Bora:

This anger, this deep, bone-deep frustration with the way teens were, all of that being handled with brute force, they're just tired of the same old script.

Zeba Warsi:

Bora said Prime Minister Modi may have figured a way to slip out of this crisis, but the students will continue to hold him to account.

Neha Bora:

It's a good thing that he accepted one demand of ours, because the next demand is his resignation.

Zeba Warsi:

India's youth have made themselves impossible to ignore. And they have shown that even the most powerful governments can be forced to bend to the will of the people.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Zeba Warsi.

Uzair Usmani and Naila Khan contributed to field producing this piece.