How India’s Gen-Z protesters taught Narendra Modi a lesson

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Sanjay Ruparelia is the Jarislowsky Democracy Chair at Toronto Metropolitan University, and senior fellow of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada

A week is a long time in politics: events catch governments by surprise. The old quip was on fierce display in India over the past week.

On July 20, tens of thousands of students marched on parliament from Jantar Mantar, a famed protest site in the heart of New Delhi. Their demand: the resignation of the Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, for failing to protect the integrity of national medical school entrance exams in May. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government sent emissaries to talk with the putative leaders of the protests, the Cockroach Janata Party, which began as a satirical online meme two months ago. Yet the mobilization only grew. Police barricaded streets, closed metro stations and limited internet connectivity, deploying batons and tear gas to quell the mounting crowds. But their actions simply emboldened the youth who had gathered across caste, religion and class. A midnight video by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, promising to set up fast-track courts to investigate the exam scandal, failed to break the tide. On July 25, Mr. Pradhan resigned, almost unimaginable a month ago.

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What drove this momentous uprising? And what does it portend?

The genesis of the CJP is remarkable. In May, the Chief Justice of India described unemployed youth criticizing state institutions on social media as parasites and cockroaches. A student studying in Boston, Abhijit Dipke, responded by asking: “What if all the cockroaches came together?” Within a fortnight, more than 20 million followed the newly created party on Instagram, more than double the BJP. Government efforts to block the account faltered in the courts.

In early June, Mr. Dipke returned to Delhi to launch a protest. A well-known activist, Sonam Wangchuk, began an indefinite fast in solidarity. Several other students joined him. Protests emerged in major cities across the country as thousands of youth streamed into the capital.

Several grievances fuelled their anger. First, the government refused to accept political responsibility for the medical exams leak, despite similar breaches in recent years. Millions of students and their families make huge financial sacrifices to prepare. The odds of succeeding are extreme. Leaks undermine fairness and create profound distrust.

Second, their desperation reflects a sober reality. India remains the fastest growing large economy in the world. Yet its capital-intensive nature generates few productive opportunities. Officially, the youth unemployment rate exceeds 16 per cent. The on-the-ground reality is severe underemployment. The majority of youth work in the informal sector and digitized gig economy, with many handling tasks far below their qualifications and skills, especially university graduates.

Finally, the protests crystallized mounting anger toward the BJP government in general. Its refusal to fire the education minister reflected a deeper pattern of centralized unaccountable power between elections. The party lost its parliamentary majority in 2024, returning to office as leader of the National Democratic Alliance. Yet the setback failed to temper its will to power. The controversial deletion of more than 60 million voters from the electoral rolls in recent state polls, most of which the BJP and its allies won handsomely, sowed growing anxiety.

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The youth mobilization in India revived images of their Gen-Z counterparts toppling governments in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh in recent years. India is unlikely to join their ranks. Nonetheless, several lessons emerge.

First, while opposition parties have defeated the ruling party in various state elections, mass social mobilization has posed a sharper challenge to the BJP in recent years. Protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, which violated the secular foundation of the constitution, delayed its implementation from 2019 to 2024. More successful was the farmers’ agitation in 2021, which forced the government to suspend contentious agricultural reforms.

Second, these recent protests represent a greater threat to the BJP. Many youth flocked to Mr. Modi during his rise to power, given his digital savvy, sheer energy and promise to create millions of good jobs. Twelve years later, they are demanding better prospects, competent institutions and government accountability with creativity, humour and defiance. The ruling party cannot dismiss them as anti-national or foreign puppets. Its political authority has cracked.

Finally, marches, protests and sit-ins embody democratic citizenship. But realizing the aspirations voiced by India’s youth requires opposition parties to reform their organizations and transcend partisan differences, and public servants to carry out their responsibilities. Only then can they channel the demands of the street into effective policies and revitalize democratic governance.

This is an Indian story. Yet its ingredients are common in many democracies today. Governments should heed the lessons.