Indian Chief Justice Surya Kant was unaware that his satirical remarks about unemployed youth, referring to them as "cockroaches" on May 15, would initiate a shift in the country's political landscape, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has been facing increasing pressure from Gen Z, evidenced by successful protests in recent months against the government's handling of various issues.

The next day after Kant's comments, Gen-Z, led by Abhijeet Dipke, founded the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) online to respond to the chief justice's satirical remarks with youth aged 15 to 29, who account for nearly 381 million of India's 1.477 billion population, by joining it on a massive scale. In the following weeks, it eclipsed the BJP's online followers and became the most popular "party" on Instagram, surpassing the 25 million followers’ mark.

After a series of challenges from these “cockroaches” forced the government to give in to their demands, including calls for the resignation of India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over exam paper leaks, the latest controversy centers on the exclusion of 130 million people from voter lists. Opposition parties, including the Congress, have accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of deliberately removing names from the electoral rolls to benefit Modi’s Hindu nationalist BJP in the upcoming state elections.

The latest protests began on September 23 in New Delhi and spread to other parts of the country. The demonstrators are demanding Kumar’s resignation and a thorough investigation into the revised voter lists. Protesters in several states have accused the election chief of targeting Muslims. As protests continue, including the latest one at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, reports have emerged of thousands of arrests, with The Indian Express citing approximately 7,000 demonstrators. However, almost all of them have been released, according to the latest media reports, with only six Congress activists jailed for damaging the facade of the chief election commissioner’s ancestral home in Agra city.

- Protests over revised voter lists — Muslims targeted

Protests against the Election Commission began in July 2025 in the eastern India state of Bihar, which has a population of over 133 million, following the release of revised voter lists. The electoral authority said removing duplicate entries, deceased voters, people who had migrated, and ineligible registrations was a routine exercise aimed at ensuring transparency in the voting system. The electoral authority stated that the process identified about 2 million deceased voters, 2.8 million people who had permanently........

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