Opinion | The Opposition’s Cockroach Lesson: What Shashi Tharoor Misses From The Right

India’s political right has already built the ecosystem of participation that the Opposition is now discovering it needs

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Shashi Tharoor’s latest column in The Indian Express, reflecting on the rise of the “Cockroach Janta Party" and the inability of India’s Opposition to channel the energy of a politically restless generation, makes an important observation: young Indians are increasingly unwilling to remain passive spectators in public life. Tharoor argues that established Opposition parties have failed to provide meaningful avenues for young people to participate in politics because of hierarchical structures, political gatekeeping and an entrenched “high command" culture.

He is right about the symptom, but from a right-of-centre perspective, his diagnosis remains incomplete.

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The deeper lesson of the Cockroach phenomenon is not merely that the Opposition needs better youth wings, more social-media campaigns or a more flexible organisational structure. It is that political energy does not emerge in a vacuum. It is cultivated through ideas, institutions, cultural confidence and a credible civilisational narrative. The Indian right has spent decades building precisely that ecosystem.

The Opposition is now discovering what happens when a political establishment loses contact with the cultural and aspirational vocabulary of a generation.

The most striking feature of the Cockroach Janta Party phenomenon is that it did not begin as a conventional political organisation. It emerged from frustration, humour, digital culture and a desire among young Indians to make themselves heard. Tharoor rightly identifies this as a warning to established parties. But the important question is: why have young people increasingly found alternative political and cultural platforms more attractive than traditional Opposition parties?

The answer cannot simply be “high command culture."

India’s political right has demonstrated that politics can be organised beyond conventional electoral structures. Over several decades, an extensive network of social, cultural, intellectual, student and volunteer organisations has created pathways through which individuals can acquire political experience, develop ideological commitments and participate in public life without necessarily possessing a dynastic surname.

This is one of the fundamental differences between an organically expanding political movement and a party establishment trying to manufacture youth enthusiasm from the top.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s electoral success cannot be understood merely........

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