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| India-Pakistan | |
| 'Cockroach' youth group founder leads first street protest after arrival in India | |
| 2026-06-07 | |
[Reuters] SUMMARY
The founder of India's viral Cockroach Janta Party led a street protest in New Delhi on Saturday demanding the resignation of the federal education minister, taking the online youth movement from social media to the streets for the first time in a show of dissent against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government. Abhijeet Dipke, 30, who has lived in the United States for the past two years and had not previously travelled to India since forming the movement, carried a copy of India's constitution as he left New Delhi's international airport for the protest site, greeted by hundreds of supporters chanting his name. Senior cabinet minister Kiren Rijiju has accused the group of seeking followers from arch-enemy Pakistan and the "anti-India gang", a slur used by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party against those it sees as unpatriotic. Dipke has publicly shared data showing about 95% of followers of the movement's Instagram account are based in India, followed by countries such as the United States, home to large groups of overseas Indians. Political analysts say the group's popularity has begun to dent Modi's image despite his party's recent victories in key state elections. Frustration among many Indians has deepened as rising fuel prices and gas shortages brought by the Iran war squeeze household budgets. India has nearly 400 million people aged 15 to 29, and generating non-farm jobs for them remains one of its biggest challenges, despite rapid growth. The urban youth jobless rate was nearly 14% in April. Many educated young people are also stuck in low-paid or insecure jobs that do not match their skills, economists say.
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| Posted by:Skidmark |