Cockroach party protest

India's farcical claims regarding its democratic credentials are being laid bare by the government's response to the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), whose peaceful protests continue to gain steam, despite the government's violent attempts to suppress them.

CJP started as a satirical protest movement whose name is derived from an offensive comment about unemployed young people made by the incumbent Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant. However, the Indian state's apathy towards the CJP's genuine concerns led it to peacefully protest against the regime, primarily over its mismanagement of university entrance exams. The protesters at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi are demanding the resignation of the education minister as well as justice for people who committed suicide because of the testing fiasco, which was a repeat of another exam debacle that occurred in 2024.

Several opposition parties and apolitical activists have expressed support for the protesters and their goals. The government's response was initially controlled, but it became more authoritarian as the crowds grew, with baton-charging crackdowns and the arrest of clearly non-violent protesters over trumped-up charges. A journalist asking why protesters were being manhandled was also promptly hit with a baton. And despite extensive evidence of police violence, including footage and reliable eyewitness testimony, the police, BJP leaders and the godi media are blaming the protesters. In their view, the footage of policemen hitting protesters with batons actually shows terrorists destroying government property with their skulls.

But not everyone has been brainwashed by the BJP propaganda. Modi and his government can try all they want to reframe facts into narratives that they can feed an unsuspecting public, but if demands for accountability keep being ignored, the growing number of victims of this regime will hit a breaking point. Maybe they already have.