DistantNews
Support us
🇬🇷 Greece /Elections & Politics

The revenge of the “cockroaches”

From Kathimerini · () Greek

Translated from Greek and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Ongoing story
  • Indian student Abhijeet Dipke turned an insult aimed at unemployed young people into the symbol of a protest movement after a senior judge called them “cockroaches.”
  • The movement won support from the opposition and secured its central demand, the education minister’s resignation, while protests faced violent repression.
  • The protests reflect anger over alleged exam fraud, high youth unemployment and the weakening of education as a path to social mobility.

“What will happen if all the cockroaches unite?” Abhijeet Dipke wrote on X after a senior judge in India described the country’s unemployed young people as cockroaches and parasites living at society’s expense. The Boston University student appropriated the insult, wearing it as a badge of honor. His post went viral.

Within a few months, Dipke had become the international face of the “cockroach movement.” Its central demand was met when the education minister resigned. The protesting young people also secured the support of India’s opposition, while the movement’s reach appeared at the ballot box in the severe defeat of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP in one of its traditional strongholds in Bihar.

What will happen if all the cockroaches unite?

· Abhijeet DipkeHe posted the question on X after a senior judge used “cockroaches” as an insult for unemployed young people.

For the first time, Modi’s previously undisputed dominance is openly threatened, and political analysts are trying to understand the movement’s momentum. At the heart of the crisis are highly competitive university entrance and recruitment exams, particularly in the public sector. The current unrest concerns an exam for admission to medical schools, but the wider system has faced cheating, question-paper leaks and delays in publishing results.

In India, admission to universities takes place through extremely competitive examinations, as do many recruitments, especially in the public sector, over the past 10 to 12 years.

· Subir SinhaThe SOAS academic explained the origins of the crisis.

Subir Sinha, director of the Centre for South Asian Studies at SOAS University of London, said the stakes were especially high for poorer Indians who rely on education as a route to a good profession and social mobility. He said unemployment is particularly severe among young people, while university graduates face greater difficulty finding work. The unemployment rate stands at 40% among people aged 15 to 25 and about 20% among those aged 25 to 29.

India’s economy has created millions of jobs, but half are in agriculture and cannot provide the same path to social mobility. Dipke, a bearded 30-year-old from western India and a member of the historically marginalized Dalit community, has given voice to the anger. He has insisted that protests remain peaceful, even as the movement confronted violent repression.

If the credibility of the examination system has begun to collapse, then one really has to think about what the future of the young people will be.

· Subir SinhaHe described the consequences of exam fraud and weak institutional trust.
About this summary

Originally published by Kathimerini in Greek. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog