India: US Backed “Cockroach” Movement Strikes New Delhi

01-08-2026: Throughout June and July, the Indian capital of New Delhi has been the site of major protests involving thousands of students and “Gen Z” (Generation Z) supporters, in one of the largest anti-government actions seen in years. These events were demanding the resignation of India’s education minister over a leak of a NEET-UG medical entrance examination question paper. Reportedly up to 20 students died by suicide following the leak and its cancellation. By July 21, hundreds had camped out overnight with the aim of joining a march on parliament the next day. Delhi police denied permission for the march to take place, and a ban was imposed on all public gatherings, roads across the city were barricaded and the internet was shut down in the city centre.[1] Thousands of youths were bravely taking on the state against the right-wing government of Narendra Modi and fighting for their future.

Toppling the government?

Or so the story goes. Scratch the surface even just a little, and the reality of the situation becomes apparent. None other than the US state backed Human Rights Watch (!) called on Indian authorities to “exercise restraint, restore mobile internet connectivity near protests, and ensure people can protest peacefully.”[2] In other words, the police should stand by and simply allow protestors to storm towards the parliament, facilitate their communication in doing so, and just watch the government be toppled. In which world would this be accepted by any government of the global north, let alone one in the global south? In which world would police not respond to an ominous march on parliament with batons? It appears that the demand for the resignation of the education minister was a façade to conceal the real aim – the overthrow of the Modi government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Despite the conservative nature of Modi’s administration, the upending of the state is hardly the demand of the majority of India’s 1.4 billion people.

In contrast to previous Gen-Z colour revolutions (Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia), this one was not leaderless but was largely led by the satirical Cockroach Janata Party (CJP). The CJP had only been “founded” on May 16 but had already become an internet sensation. Incredibly, the CJP has already amassed around 19 million followers on Instagram, more than double the number for the BJP with 9 million, and the main opposition Congress party with 13.4 million.[3] It is a fantasy to imagine that the CJP could achieve this all on its own, by its own initiative. Powerful and wealthy backers are behind the CJP, linked to the deep state of the US, which is desperate to stop the unravelling of its former global dominance. One does not have to delve too deeply to find evidence of this, when the CJP and the Cockroach movement receives favourable coverage from none other than the papers of record of the US Empire, the New York Times[4] and The Washington Post.[5]

“Generation Gutter”

Most assuredly, the New York Times and The Washington Post do not rally behind progressive or anti-imperialist movements in the Global South. Quite the contrary. BJP MP Kangana Ranaut denounced the Cockroach movement as “Generation Gutter” and “puke inducing”.[6] Certainly, the BJP is a right-wing party, but the Cockroach movement has faced a backlash from the public from those who confront them over their social media abuse of the government. And it is acknowledged that the Cockroach movement is backed by “civil society organisations”. A clue as to who funds these civil society organisations (or non-government organisations – NGOs) is that CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke is a political communications graduate of Boston University in the USA. The name of the CJP obviously parodies Prime Minister Modi’s BJP, which has been in power since 2014. The name traces its origins to comments from India’s chief justice Surya Kant, who once commented during a case that there were “youngsters like cockroaches” who, unable to find employment or any profession, turned to social media to “start attacking everyone”.[7]

The 36 day “student movement” ended with the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as the Union Education Minister, so it achieved its ostensible aim. The Cockroach movement gleefully celebrated this via its spokespersons Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, along with a message from Sonam Wangchuk, who had conducted a hunger strike for 26 days.[8] Yet Sonam Wangchuk is hardly a selfless Gandhi style hero. Wangchuk has used the hunger strike as a form of protest several times, especially in relation to his demand for Sixth Schedule status for Ladakh. In 2019 the Modi government revoked Article 370 and bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. By 2024, Union Home Minister Amit Shah told a Ladakh delegation that neither Sixth Schedule Status nor statehood would be granted.[9] In reality, Ladakh separatism is used by Washington behind the scenes to cause chaos in a contested region for Pakistan and India as part of their drive against Modi.

Wangchuk has denied allegations of violating the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. Accusations arose after a protest in Leh, which led to a formal backlash from the Ministry of Home Affairs, which cancelled the FCRA licence of Wangchuk’s Students Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL).[10] There are no documents that explicitly show that the notorious US state backed Ford Foundation or billionaire anti-socialist regime change specialist George Soros’ Open Society Foundations (OSF) to Wangchuk’s SECMOL. The connections are indirect and historical. The Ford Foundation opened its New Delhi office in 1952, its first office outside the US. It has made “grants” of an estimated $502 million to more than 1200 Indian institutions. The Indian government’s friction with the Open Society Foundation goes back years. Wangchuk’s SECMOL was founded with an American named Rebecca Norman, who has an academic background with the Vermont based School for International Training or SIT. Wangchuk and Norman were married when SECMOL was founded but have since divorced.

SIT is variously funded through the Ford Foundation indirectly, and has for decades specialised in so-called international education, development and social justice for NGOs in the Global South. In other words, it is undermining the state and can be activated on queue.[11] For 75 years, US backed NGOs and USAID in particular, have woven themselves into India’s political, educational and economic fabric. These are foreign interventions, a “shadow empire” intended to subvert and regime change the state via a colour revolution, when necessary.[12] The current Cockroach movement is a clear example. For its part, the Modi government is well aware of the problem of US backed NGOs operating within the nation. In 2014, the administration launched an investigation into over 13 000 NGOs, but through intensive lobbying, the Ford Foundation managed to have its operations cleared.[13]

Hybrid war on multipolarity

Imperialism is at war with the rising multipolar world. This war is not just waged on military terms, as with the current US war on Iran and the US/NATO proxy war on Russia via Ukraine. It is a hybrid war, using military, political, media, communications and other means. In the case of the Cockroach movement, it is the use of decades of NGO subversion activated at a certain point for either destabilisation or regime change to further the goals of Washington and its vassals in Europe. Concerns about the education system, or unemployment for young people in India are a false front. There is little doubt that many young people in India have been drawn into the Cockroach movement sincerely believing they are taking action for better outcomes for their society and their futures. Yet India is currently a target of imperialism, and is thus being hit with chaos in Jammu and Kashmir, and now in the capital New Delhi.

Washington is not happy with India, and especially not with Modi, for at least two reasons. Firstly, India has remained within the non-imperialist BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa plus 15 other Global South states) confederation, which now encompasses around 55% of global population and over 40% of global GDP (Gross Domestic Product). It is forming an alternative to centuries of Western dominated colonial plunder, which has the potential to move towards socialism. Yet just offering an alternative development path for Global South states is far too much for the Empire to bear. India is being targeted as it is seen as being less committed to BRICS than pillars like Russia, China and Iran.

Secondly, India had continued to purchase Russian oil and has even increased this volume since NATO began its proxy war on Ukraine in 2022.[14] To top it off, New Delhi will host the 18^th BRICS Summit in September,[15] barely two months away. On cue, imperialism tries its hand at regime change in New Delhi, via yet another Gen Z uprising. It is vital that working people the world over see through the multiple manoeuvres imperialism conducts in a last-ditch effort to save a dying capitalism. Wars, colour revolutions and regime change operations must fade into the past. Marxist vanguard parties must be forged across the globe and linked in a struggle to push humanity to a future worthy of the history that workers have built over centuries. Unipolarity must go, and multipolarity must be the first step towards the self-rule and self-organisation of civilisation.

Workers League

www.redfireonline.com

E: workersleague@protonmail.com

[1] www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/20/cockroach-janta-party-protest-march-sonam-wangchuk-india-parliament (29-07-2026)

[2] www.thehindu.com/news/national/cjp-protest-july-20-2026-cockroach-janata-party-jantar-mantar-parliament-march-sonam-wangchuk/article71242448.ece (29-07-2026)

[3] www.nbcnews.com/world/asia/indias-cockroach-janata-party-began-joke-millions-joined-rcna346466 (29-07-2026)

[4] www.nytimes.com/2026/05/28/world/asia/cockroach-janta-party-india-movement.html (29-07-2026)

[5] www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/06/06/india-cockroach-janata-party/ee9115dc-615c-11f1-9c46-d6211372eede_story.html (29-07-2026)

[6] www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/cockroaches-spreading-filth-whos-birthing-them-kangana-ranaut-slams-gen-z-protest-1974587 (29-07-2026)

[7] www.independent.co.uk/asia/india/cockroach-janta-party-dharmendra-pradhan-cjp-protest-abhijeet-dipke-b3021441.html (29-07-2026)

[8] www.msn.com/en-in/news/india/victory-should-have-humility-sonam-wangchuk-reacts-to-cjp-s-viral-celebration-videos/ar-AA28Pp8B (29-07-2026)

[9] www.frontline.thehindu.com/politics/sonam-wangchuk-hunger-strike/article71223988.ece (29-07-2026)