Ignore youths at your own peril

Govt and opposition are failing the youngsters by not engaging with them

Alok Tiwari

Like wars, protests and movements too can go in unpredictable ways. After the July 20 march to parliament and the brutal police response to it, this seems to be happening with the ‘cockroach movement’. What had appeared to start as a sarcastic riposte to an unfortunate comment from country’s chief justice now appears to be having a life of its own. It has certainly grown bigger than anyone thought possible only a few weeks ago. As already pointed out in this column, this is thanks in no small part to the ham-handed response of the government that began with shutting down its Instagram handle and continuing with police lathi charge on the marchers this week.

Government acted on the pattern of contempt that Modi government has treated all the protests during its 12-year tenure. It follows a tired and largely ineffective playbook of first trying to discredit the protesters using its considerable, and now hopelessly predictable troll army, and then trying to intimidate them by unleashing physical force. This was done during months long farmers protests, during women wrestlers’ demonstrations, as well as now. This time a new sinister element in the form of police personnel appearing without nametags and ununiformed lathi-wielding thugs was also added. Only at the last moment before the march a feeble attempt at dialog was made when Union Minister and J P Nadda met two movement leaders. Nothing came out of it, because Nadda, metaphorically speaking, can’t move a flower vase on his own.

The protest initially tapped into the anger among youths over NEET paper leak and resulting suicide by dozens of students. However, movements rarely get built over any single issue though that might provide the first spark. The reason why thousands are now willing to come out on the streets not just at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi but in cities across the country is cumulative anger and frustration at becoming irrelevant in their own country. India never was a perfect democracy; no country is or can be. Yet, when things came to boil some elements in the government and institutions responded to release the pressure. This has become rare in Modi years.

This regime sees responding to people, especially political opponents, as a sign of weakness. Conversely, ignoring or suppressing them is strength. BJP has often made fun of Rahul Gandhi’s ill-timed foreign trips in times of crisis in his party. For better or for worse, that affects just one party. What is one to make of the foreign trips that Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes to random nations accepting vague awards during crises in the country? This is not strength, it is indifference.

Unfortunately, problems do not go away by ignoring them, much less youth movements in the age of Internet and social media. Governments ignore them at their own peril. In time they draw in all those angry and frustrated with the establishment. God knows that people have a lot to be angry about. Be it denial of their franchise through a crooked voter list revision and meek surrender of judiciary to it, or ill-advised ethanol blending push, or super expensive infrastructure projects falling apart or displacing people and handing over their lands to favoured industrialists, all contribute to the feeling of alienation. Ordinary people increasingly think that the system is rigged for the few. While they face growing crime, poor air and water quality, dysfunctional cities, unemployment and inflation, the privileged few have it all. Finally, the spectacle of those safeguarding the faith themselves robbing the Ram Mandir ripped off the last shred of respectability from the ruling elite. It is not just people angry over a broken education system that are joining the cockroach movement but all those feeling neglected, used, and abused.

Government is not the only party guilty of not recognizing the widespread discontent. So are the opposition parties. BJP can be excused for looking at cockroaches with suspicion. It has much to lose. So, it brought up past association of founder Abhijeet Dipke with AAP as evidence that this was a hidden AAP attack on government. But what is the excuse of others? Perhaps, it is a sign of our times that nobody believes that a genuine grievance can give rise to a spontaneous movement. One would expect opposition to jump at a movement that channelises popular anger to such an extent. But no, till date they have offered only tepid gestures of support. No party showed the political savvy of turning the cause its own and riding the wave of discontent.

Many in Congress, burnt by Anna Hazare experience, continue to believe that cockroach movement is also an RSS false flag operation meant to control even the opposition space. They remain suspicious of not just Dipke but also Sonam Wangchuk, who fasted with students for 21 days, over his past support to Modi government on issues relating to Ladakh. That has prevented country’s biggest and only national opposition party from offering direct support to the movement. It instead continues to run a parallel movement about NEET leak with almost identical demands. Regional parties like TMC and DMK are still licking their electoral wounds.

The entire movement appears caught between a smug and arrogant government and a suspicious opposition. This is ensuring that the issues being raised by the youths are not being taken up by the regular political apparatus. Parliament session is on, but education reforms and employment are not on anyone’s agenda. Instead, it is all about delimitation and women’s reservation’s bill and whether government can muster the two thirds majority it needs to get them passed. This may mean the movement fizzles out. But we know what happens when people’s issues are ignored for too long. History might look at this moment as an opportunity squandered by both government and opposition to get something meaningful done.

This column appeared in Lokmat Times on July 23, 2026