'Today's Children Are Not Slaves Of Anyone'

'This generation decides on their own what is good or bad for them.'
'They got an outlet to vent their anger against this government through CJP and they did that.'
'They felt how can the government control us or lathi charge us?'

In the weeks following the Cockroach Janta Party protests, one question has dominated political conversations: How did a movement that began with a small gathering at Delhi's Jantar Mantar evolve into a nationwide youth uprising that compelled the government to drop its education minister?

For veteran journalist Ajit Anjum, who has spent over three decades covering India's biggest political agitations -- from the Anna Hazare movement to the farmers' protests -- the answer lies in the emergence of an assertive Gen Z that refused to back down.

In this conversation with Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff, Ajit Anjum, recipient of the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in journalism award for his Bihar floods coverage (2010), reflects on the turning points that transformed the protest into a mass movement, why police action became a catalyst rather than a deterrent, how social media amplified public anger, and why this movement, in his view, marked a generational shift in Indian politics.

'Things started changing when Sonam Wangchuk's health started deteriorating'

As a journalist you have seen political movements and protests against government for decades. How do you see the Cockroach Janta Party movement in comparison to those earlier political movements?

I see this as a spontaneous and organic movement.

When the Cockroach Janta Party leaders started this movement on June 20 they too must have not expected it to become so impactful and on this huge a scale.

The movement did get a boost when Sonam Wangchuk sat on protest on June 28 but till July 10 the CJP movement was not making a big impact.

There was not much crowds at the protest site (Jantar Mantar in New Delhi).

It was raining too so the turnout of people was less and I don't think more than 1,000 people used to turn up for the protest.

So what changed?

Things started changing on the ground when Sonam Wangchuk's health started deteriorating around July 12-13.

Suddenly people started appealing on social media about his health and the movement started picking up.

I had gone to the protest site on July 8 and the crowd was less but when I went on July 15, a week later, more people were to be seen at the protest site.

And the situation completely changed after the police forcefully evicted a fasting Sonam Wangchuk on July 18 (on the 21st day of his indefinite hunger strike).

This was a blunder by the police because the way he was forcefully taken out from the Jantar Mantar protest site resulted in anger among the people, especially students.

They felt the police forcefully kidnapped him by taking him covered in a white bedsheet.

They came at 7 am to execute their operation against Sonam Wangchuk.

This move created an uproar on social media which then led to the CJP protest becoming a big news story.

And the very next day the number of people at the protest site increased dramatically.

Last Monday, when Parliament was to convene, more people turned up and there was no place to stand at the protest site.

And to make matters worse the police did lathi charge and tear gas shells were fired at the crowd.

This created more momentum for the protest. The government and police then started doing blunder after blunder.

The crowd started coming from every direction to the protest site, and it was not restricted to Delhi alone but from adjoining states too, demanding Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation.

Students were sleeping on the roads and I saw these students were from coaching centres, different universities of India and different cities of India.

This was not the case before July 15 and I saw this movement taking a sudden surge.

'The crowd started swelling more after the lathi charge'

What made these students from outside Delhi to get emotionally connected to the CJP movement?

I will give you parallels with the farmers movement against the Farm Laws of 2021 which I covered for one year on the ground.

The difference at that time was that many people did not understand agriculture as an issue.

They used to feel the farmers' movement was more a Punjab and Haryana issue.

But this CJP movement was an issue which affected every household of India, as it was a students issue which involved parents too.

This huge crowd assembling was an organic impact as everyone felt how can a 59-year-old man who was protesting peacefully be carried away by the police in an unjust way?

And I saw this touched mostly students who were from the 15-25 age group. This was a typical Gen Z agitation.

They became very passionate about it. If their parents did not allow them, they bunked school to attend the Jantar Mantar protest.

Many were compelling their parents to accompany them to the protest site.

Were they not scared of the lathi charge or tear gas?

On the contrary, the crowd started swelling more after the lathi charge.

There was a sudden increase of around 20 to 30 percent in crowds every day as even parents started feeling that the police was beating students, that too our own children.

And most importantly, people from various political parties started coming to the protest site.

Many students I met told me, which I have shot on video and put on my channel, that their parents were BJP bhakts and yet they came to the protest site.

Some children I met told me that their parents were BJP supporters and only sent them to the protest site after the students were lathi charged.

Two blunders shook the government.

One, the way they treated Sonam Wangchuk.

Two, they did lathi charge on students.

I felt this is a reels generation and not politically aware students.

They came on to the roads.

They felt ab nahi toh kab? They never got scared.

They told me if PM dheeth hai toh hum bhi dheeth hain (if PM is adamant then we too are adamant).

These kids became rebellious after the lathi charge on July 20.

Before that they were merely participating in the protest.

What about fear?

That disappeared on July 20.

There was lathi charge in the morning and by evening I also felt that the CJP movement was over after the aggressive police action. But by 8 pm things started changing as more people came to Jantar Mantar without fear.

I feel even the CJP never believed that their movement will bounce back on July 20.

'The government was late in reacting to the situation'

But the Modi government knows to read the pulse of people and the BJP's IT cell too is quick in grasping things on the ground. How did they fail to see this coming?

They could not judge the situation on time.

And when they started judging the situation after July 20, it took them four days to understand the gravity of the situation.

The government was late in reacting to the situation this time.

For the first time in history, PM Modi made a video at 11.52 pm and that too in a reel format stating, 'Hello Friends' to Gen Z. He got late feedback.

News channels were not showing the gravity of the situation on the ground, and many times the government depends on news channels to gauge the situation, but this time news channels too did not realise the gravity of the situation.

There was miscalculation and they could not understand that this battle has gone to every Indian home.

My daughter participated in the movement on her own from college or with her friends when I was present there as a journalist covering the protest.

I also met senior officers, who were covering their faces fearing they will be caught on camera, to lend support to the movement.

The CJP protest became a FOMO (fear of missing out) movement.

I met couples at Jantar Mantar who had come down from Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru etc for the protest.

One lady I met, she told me had she not come she would never have been able to tell her future generations that she was present at Jantar Mantar in support of the CJP.

Every person over there felt that it was their own movement.

I have never witnessed this kind of movement in my 30 years of journalistic life.

Is it so?

There was the Anna Hazare movement, but it had the backing of the BJP and RSS.

Anti-Congress feeling was there among the crowd for sure, but there was also every kind of age group.

In the CJP protest this was not seen.

I have never witnessed this kind of movement in India where the 15 to 20 age group led it.

These students bunked school, colleges and switched off their mobiles so that their parents could not trace that they were at the protest site.

Many children told me on video that they had switched off their location or changed their location setting on their mobile so that their parents did not know they were at the CJP protest site.

These students were ready to get beaten up and still come the next day to take on the government.

So, this kind of protest was never heard or seen in India.

Why did these youngsters have so much disdain for the government?

They started feeling that this government was adamant and they were not willing to listen to their demands.

I will give you the example of my 19-year-old daughter.

When I was 19 years old my father could rule over my wishes and I used to obey him with respect.

Today's children are not slaves of anyone.

This generation decides on their own what is good or bad for them.

They got an outlet to vent their anger against this government through the CJP and they did that.

They felt how can the government control us or lathi charge us?

They became adamant that they want to teach a lesson to this government by demanding Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation for the paper leak.

Did these youngsters not know PM Modi is adamant and does not change his stance?

These 18 year olds must have been six years old when Modi came to power in 2014.

They have not seen that side of Modi in their lifetime.

They have never judged Modi because they were too young in 2014.

Even if that student is 20 years old today, s/he was eight years old when Modi came to power in 2014.

They felt what they were demanding was not wrong as they were asking only for the education minister's resignation.

I told them that they were demanding the education minister's resignation as if they wanted a toffee.

But they just refused to budge and got what they wanted. Dharmendra Pradhan had to resign.

'Sonam Wangchuk became irrelevant to the protestors after he broke his fast'

Why do you think the government gave in and asked Pradhan to resign?

It is because the CJP leaders said that by July 24 if Dharmendra Pradhan did not resign, they would ask for a Parliament march in two days.

Had this march taken place then there would have been a bloodbath for sure as the students were adamant.

The situation became so bad that even if CJP leaders like Abhijeet Dipke had called for a withdrawal of protest without Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation, the crowd would have beaten him up.

They were not listening to anyone. The only thing they wanted was Dharmendra Pradhan to resign.

Sonam Wangchuk broke his fast and posed with Union Ministers J P Nadda and Dr Jitendra Singh, agreeing to a discussion on the education sector in Parliament rather than demanding Pradhan's resignation.

Sonam Wangchuk became irrelevant to the protestors after he broke his fast.

Had he broken his fast with the Union ministers at the protest site, the protestors would have thrown stones at him.

After some time nobody bothered about anything except one thing, and that was Pradhan's resignation.

They also came up with slogans like 'Jab jab Modi darta hai, Hindu-Muslim karta hai'. Can you say something about it?

More than 'Jab jab Modi darta hai, Hindu-Muslim karta hai', the other slogan, 'Jab jab Modi darta hai, Police ko aagey karta hai' caught on.

The Hindu-Muslim slogan was rare compared to the police slogan.

Students became fearless, and they were genuine students. The government realised that if they do another lathi charge there will be trouble for them for sure.

'CJP protest was without any political motive'

Why did this issue not get support when Rahul Gandhi and Opposition parties highlighted it?

The answer is no because when you do political protests, people look at it as a protest with a political motive.

On the contrary, the CJP protest was without any political motive.

I feel for a political party to organise this kind of crowd for a protest is difficult.

Is the BJP on the back foot now and could it lead to their defeat in the 2029 general elections?

It is difficult to give a conclusion at this moment. It is nearly three years for the 2029 general elections.

But yes, the victory that the BJP was getting one after another has suffered a setback.

A new group Gen Z has come out of nowhere and challenged them, resulting in their victory.

The BJP will surely do something as course correction, but what will they do? It is their internal matter but they will do a course correction for sure.

When I interviewed these young Gen Z protestors, I realised this Gen Z will vote for the first time in the 2029 elections and in that there will be a big percentage of voters who will not vote for Modi for sure.

Do you feel if the CJP enters politics they will be able to win elections?

Again, I doubt it at this moment.

It is too early to say though because we have seen in the past how Anna Hazare movement led to the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party and they went on to win the Delhi elections.

To become a political party and win elections is different, and motivating public sentiment for an issue like education without any political interest is a different issue altogether.

• COCKROACH JANTA PARTY PROTESTS, 2026