NEW DELHI — Nearly five weeks after the leaders of India’s youth Cockroach Janta Party launched their protest calling for the education minister’s resignation over leaked exam papers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 75, posted an unusual selfie video on Instagram. In it, he expressed pain over the students’ suffering and pledged to take corrective action.
The video, shared late on a Thursday, landed on the same platform where the CJP had built a following of 22 million — mostly Gen Z users — in just a matter of days back in May. It wasn’t enough for the thousands of demonstrators who had gathered in central Delhi, endured a major police crackdown, and sparked copycat protests across the nation. By Saturday, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had stepped down — a rare concession for Modi’s government and a clear victory for the protesters.
The minister’s departure handed the CJP an unmistakable win. In the weeks leading up to it, the movement’s young supporters had openly ridiculed Modi through rap music, protest signs, and graffiti — something that would have seemed almost impossible just months earlier in a country where Modi has dominated the political landscape since taking power in 2014.
“A large number of people who were at the protest may actually be his supporters — and that’s quite different from other kinds of protests in the past,” said Sanjay Srivastava, an anthropology professor at SOAS University of London.
“What might be interpreted as a win is the fact that there is now a much wider cross-section of people questioning the government. A much wider cross-section has begun to question the idea that the ruling party is necessarily good for the country,” he added.
While the immediate trigger was the leaked medical-entrance exam, analysts point to deeper frustrations — particularly youth unemployment and anxiety that artificial intelligence could eliminate jobs in India’s IT sector, a field the country is globally recognized for.
“The paper leak is a trigger point,” said political analyst Amitabh Tiwari. “It is largely a reflection of the anxiety, nervousness, discontent, frustration and anger among the youth.”
Senior government minister Rajnath Singh said the administration’s “top priority remains to understand our students’ genuine concerns, address them promptly, and ensure that they know their voices are being heard.”
Analysts note a significant representation gap: Indians between the ages of 18 and 40 account for roughly 40% of the population, yet hold only about 10% of seats in the lower house of parliament — a steep drop from more than double that figure in the 1950s, according to Tiwari. The average age of cabinet members currently exceeds 60.
Although the CJP is not a formal political party, opposition groups have moved quickly to align themselves with the student movement, hoping to capitalize on what they see as a rare crack in Modi’s political armor.
The first real test of youth discontent at the ballot box could come in upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh — India’s most populous state — as well as in Punjab and Modi’s home state of Gujarat. Both Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat are currently governed by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
Looking further ahead, analysts say the greater threat to Modi could emerge in the 2029 national election, especially if the CJP formally enters electoral politics. The group’s founder, Abhijeet Dipke, has said no decision has been made yet on that front.
Some political observers note that young voters have traditionally cast ballots based on religious or caste identity, a pattern that has benefited Modi’s Hindu nationalist party. But that may be shifting.
In one recent example, an actor running under his own party banner — allied with opposition forces — was elected chief minister in the prosperous southern state of Tamil Nadu, driven largely by a Gen Z fanbase built on Instagram.
“This has been a moment of reckoning for PM Modi — and it shows how they are completely out of touch with what Gen Z wants,” said author Anurag Minus Verma. “For years, the BJP’s digital political strategy was centred on platforms like X, where much of the political conversation took place. But that conversation has increasingly shifted to Instagram now, particularly among younger users.”
The numbers underscore the challenge: despite governing most of India and claiming the title of the world’s largest political party, the BJP has accumulated only 10 million Instagram followers over several years — less than half of what the CJP gained in just days. By comparison, the BJP has 23 million followers on X and 18 million on Facebook, though Modi’s own personal accounts dwarf those figures, ranging from 60 to 107 million followers across platforms.
“You need a kind of authenticity for Instagram,” said columnist Santosh Desai. “Pre-laboured, carefully massaged messages won’t work. This medium was created by this generation and has become what it has thanks to this generation. This generation has no reverence.”
For a decade, Modi has projected an image of strength and decisiveness, rarely acknowledging errors and resisting pressure to remove ministers. Indian farmers were forced to protest for nearly a full year before Modi reversed controversial agricultural laws in 2021.
“From now, a leader who listens is likely to do well,” Tiwari said. “And that is what Modi is trying to show.”
