India: Can 'cockroaches' threaten Modi's political grip?

India's Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) may have anticipated pushback from the government after its first round of protests in July, but the scale of barricading and detentions that greeted its leaders in a fortress-like New Delhi on October 10 was unlike anything they had anticipated.

The CJP began as a satirical online movement after the chief justice of India, Surya Kant, referred to unemployed young people as "cockroaches" in an offhand remark. The name is an ironic riff on the name of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In its latest round of agitation, they are demanding the resignation of the country's controversy-hit Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, after more than 130 million names were reportedly removed from electoral rolls nationwide.

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