India’s newest political symbol is not a flag, a clenched fist or a revolutionary slogan. It is a cockroach. That alone says something important about the mood of a section of India’s youth. The sudden rise of the meme-driven “Cockroach Janta Party” is easy to dismiss as internet theatre. It has no organisation on the ground, no electoral machinery and no ideological coherence in the traditional sense. Yet its explosive popularity among young Indians reveals a deeper political reality: a generation that feels economically insecure, socially unheard and emotionally disconnected from formal politics is beginning to invent its own language of protest.

The movement emerged after controversial remarks comparing unemployed youth and activists to “cockroaches” by the Chief Justice of India triggered outrage online. But the speed with which young Indians embraced the insult and turned it into a collective identity is what matters politically. The cockroach became a metaphor for survival in a system many believe no longer works for them. This is not merely about unemployment, though India’s youth job........

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