India: Can cockroaches threaten Modi's political dominance?

Thousands detained, leaders arrested on arrival, and a capital on lockdown: Youth-led protests against the election chief have caught the eye of India's government. But experts say that toppling it is another matter.

13/10/2026 October 13, 2026 Thousands arrested, leaders arrested on arrival and capital in quarantine: Youth-led protests against election chief draw attention of Indian government. But experts say that toppling it is another matter.

India's Suk Janata Party (CJP) may have expected a backlash from the government after its first round of protests in July, but the scale of barricades and detentions that greeted its leaders in a fortress-like New Delhi on October 10 was nothing like they had anticipated.

The CJP started as an online satirical movement after Chief Justice of India Surya Kant called unemployed youth "cockroaches" in an offhand remark. The name is an ironic riff on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In their latest round of protests, they have demanded the resignation of the country's Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, after removing more than 130 million names from electoral rolls across the country.

You can read more about the controversy here.

CJP founder Abhijit Deepke, along with Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, was arrested from the plane in which he landed in the national capital.

Meanwhile, police were stationed outside the homes of several other figures associated with the movement, including social media personality Dhruv Rathi, who has close to 20 million followers on Instagram.

In central Delhi, buses were packed with protesters, many of whom were taken to outlying centers and kept there for hours. According to local media, at least 3,000 people were arrested across the city.

How the government deals with protests

The protests come as Modi celebrates 25 uninterrupted years of leading elected governments, first in the state of Gujarat as chief minister and then as India's prime minister.

Delhi-based writer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay told DW: "This celebration has come at a time when he is politically at his weakest." Mukhopadhyay is the author of Modi's 2013 biography, Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times.

He compared the government's current response to its approach in July, when thousands of young protesters took to the streets to demand the resignation of Education Minister Modi over the repeated leak of exam papers.

At the time, authorities had used batons, arrests and bullets to disperse crowds that had gathered in central Delhi after days on the streets.

However, this time, the authorities resorted to mass security deployment and large-scale preventive measures. This included warnings to those associated with previous protests, transport disruptions, internet outages and airport arrests.

"The government has learned from its previous experience. They didn't allow people to sit in Jantar Mantar for a long time, so they couldn't blow balloons," senior Asia analyst at global monitor ACLED told DW, Pearl Pandya.

Referring to the government's decision to remove the 18th-century Jantar Mantar observatory in central Delhi from the list of designated protest sites, he added: "What is worrying is whether this becomes the playbook for the future - that you are not allowed to protest in the first place."

However, authorities have announced three new protest sites in the national capital.

Mukhopadhyay had a different reading of the situation. "The extent of this deployment is actually a setback for Mr. Modi," he said.

Mukhopadhyay argued that it would be a setback for the government if it had to deploy security forces on such a scale in response to the protests of an entirely new socio-political movement.

Despite the momentum, the CJP has not been able to repeat its success since July, as protests against Kumar have been largely led by opposition leaders and student organisations.

Indian authorities suppressed the "cockroach" protest

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"Education was much more of a cross-sectoral issue... The right to vote is still seen as an inherently political right, where the opposition is against the BJP," Pandya said.

However, the CJP has long maintained that it is apolitical. This is often cited as a reason for them to gather young followers.

Mukhopadhyay criticized it and said, "You can't raise issues of electoral neutrality without saying these are political issues."

Despite the differences between the CJP's previous round of protests in July and the current wave of protests, sociologist Surinder Singh Jodhka emphasized continuity.

"I don't think they are qualitatively different. Once again, young people are the ones who are mobilized and they are very encouraged because the previous round of protests was successful," he told DW. And it also asks similar questions about institutions, about democracy, about transparency and accountability.

Jodhka added, “There is new hope for those who had earlier abandoned India and felt that the right wing was completely in control.

Analysts have pointed to India's strong institutions as a buffer against dramatic government change, rejecting comparisons to the violent protests in neighboring Nepal and Bangladesh that brought down their governments.

"India has had a very strong government system and government institutions," Judka explained.

Pandya also stated that faith in the judiciary "prevents these protests from turning into a people's revolution that topples the government."

The Minister of Education gave in to Sosri's demands and resigned

Still, he said, continued discontent "may fuel this issue of government in 2029 or earlier in state elections."

It could also erode Modi's popularity, which has been a defining feature of Indian politics for the past decade, the expert suggested.

According to Mukhopadhyay, the most worrying aspect of the current protests is the loss of credibility of the electoral body.

Recalling the pride he felt when he registered to vote at age 21, he drew comparisons with young Indian voters today. Now the youth are fighting for their vote.