An interview with a socialist activist from India
The recent mass movement of youth against the policies of the Narendra Modi government in India was a key topic of discussion at the recent CWI Summer School in Berlin. Laura Rafetseder, from the CWI in Austria, spoke with Youvraj, a member of New Socialist Alternative (CWI India), about the origins of the protests, the rise of the ‘Cockroach Janata Party’ (CJP), and the vital lessons for the students’ and workers’ movements.
What began as a response to educational scandals – specifically the cancellation of the NEET-UG medical entrance examination following a massive paper leak – rapidly evolved into a nationwide political movement. While the media outlets focused on the CJP – the satirical online movement launched by ‘communication strategist’ Abhijit Dipke – the true engine of the struggle was the mass mobilisation of youth on the ground.
During the 35-day sit-in strikes in Delhi, particularly following the state’s crackdown on protesters, the movement demonstrated that, despite the authoritarian consolidation of the Modi regime, deep-seated disillusionment and anger are bubbling to the surface. As Youvraj explains, the movement was a classic case of leadership being pushed from below, as students and youth forced the agitation beyond its initial, limited demands for the Education Minister’s resignation, increasingly challenging the Prime Minister and the broader capitalist regime itself.
Can you tell me about the conditions that led to the movement?
There has been a significant amount of discontent and a kind of disillusionment that has been building up in India because of the expectations of ‘New India’, promised by Prime Minister Modi. That’s how he came to power. But all the hopes and promises were hollow.
Especially after Covid, things started changing and the mood was slowly turning to anger, especially because of joblessness and unemployment. In addition, the educational system is broken. But the opposition was weak, which is how Modi could continue to control the situation. Nevertheless, discontent had been building up as well as disillusionment and anger. You just needed a match to light it. And the trigger was the university entrance exams for medical schools. Medical school is one of the few ways in India to move up, so a lot of young people want to get in, especially because of how low the wages in other jobs are. There’s a huge competition for entrance into medical schools.
Can you tell me about the movement’s strengths and weaknesses?
I think the strength of the movement was that it captured the imagination of students and youth. It started as a student’s movement around that educational issue. But it turned into a mass movement, and in effect challenged the very regime in some ways. It started with a single issue, but later it turned into a generalised mass political movement.
Its limitations are that it is lacking organisation. Instead it was a spontaneous online social media thing. The media talk about the ‘cockroach movement’, and yes, the CJP started it. But the movement went far beyond it. The left student unions did the real mobilisation for the 35 days of sit-in strikes. The rallying point was in Delhi. The sit-in strikes started from 20 June and were successful on 24 July when the education minister resigned. The commitment came from the left student organisations, but there were no democratic structures to coordinate the movement. The CJP leadership at one point tried to limit the movement. In effect, it tried to divert attention from the resignation of the minister. When it was pushed from below, it adopted some general demands, like having the right to access education. But the leadership really did not have a broader outlook.
The movement has shown that Modi is not invincible. Others on the left had claimed that the Modi government is fascist. how does the CWI in India characterise the Modi government?
We have been saying for quite some time that this is not a fascist government. For us, fascism is not a loose term. Fascism implies a mass moment to smash the working class. It is true that this is a very right-wing, extremely authoritarian government. At one point, there was possibly a mass movement, let’s say between 2014-2018. But again, it was not based upon a fundamental ideology. Even when it had more popular support, it was based more on Modi’s promises of better days. It wasn’t an ideologically right-wing mass movement. More importantly, in the last seven years, it has been very clear that it is no longer a mass movement. A section does support it, but that is a tiny section. Many more are against the Modi government. It is always necessary to distinguish between authoritarianism and fascism.
Has the movement managed to overcome some communal divisions?
In the movement, to an extent. It is part of the slogans and chants in the demonstrations: “Whenever Modi is scared of the people he attacks Muslim people. Whenever Modi is scared of the people he brings in the police. When Modi is scared of the people he will bring in division.”
India has been known for general strikes in the past and has had a big strike a couple of months ago. Can you tell me a bit about that?
The Indian working class is large. That means when it goes on strike, a large number is on strike. But of this huge working class, only 7% or less is organised in trade unions. Nonetheless, this organised working class is very important. I think one of the major reasons why we have had more strikes in the last few years is that the government attempted to bring in new labour laws. In 2020, this government said, ‘we are simplifying the laws’. But in fact it was an attempt to deprive the working class of its collective bargaining power. The new labour laws are absolutely anti-working class. Workers could sense that. Which is why, since 2020, there have been general strikes almost every year, at times even twice a year. And because of that, in 2020, even though the laws were passed, the government said ‘we’re not going to implement these laws’. This is a partial success of the strikes. But this year, the government decided to implement these laws. And there was a general strike. But they were not really full-throttle. The union leadership is unable to fully mobilise workers. If they get mobilised, even 5-10% of the working class is a huge power. But the trade union leaders are afraid of that power and they hesitate because it could challenge the government.
What is the programme and demands that we raise in the movement and how can the movement be linked up to the organised working class?
There are several things we try to do. One is during the movement itself, we put forward a transitional approach. We launched a campaign to connect to the youth – the ‘RRR’ campaign. We said “resist this regime”. The second R is “reclaim democracy”. And the third R is “rebuild the society along socialist lines”. ‘RRR – resist, reclaim and rebuild’. Resisting and reclaiming democracy is good – but it is not enough because those who are in power do not represent the workers and the masses.
We issued appeals to the left student unions. That they should, along with the CJP, form coordination committees. These committees should coordinate the whole movement with a democratic structure. The left student unions played a crucial role. We welcome that, but they did not take leadership of the movement. We appeal to them that there should be joint coordination committees and that this whole movement should be coordinated.
We also called on the unions to mobilise to support the students, that they must call for strikes and demonstrations in support of the movement. At one point the situation was dangerous, the government was going to attack the movement. So in that situation it was important to show that the students have much larger support. We called upon the trade unions to join the struggle so we can connect them to the youth, so they know the workers are with us. This was no hollow call.
We have our own construction workers’ union. Not a large union, but we did hold two demonstrations in support. ‘Construction workers stand with students and youth’, was the slogan. Our students union also joined. We also formed a solidarity committee for the youth movement at the city level. We organised demonstrations and multiple things in support.
Usually the weakness of movements against right-wing governments is that the opposition is so weak. The question of an alternative is unclear.
Yes, they feel they have no alternative. Absolutely. How do we confront it? Most of the left had been rallying behind the pro-capitalist Congress Party. They have been saying ‘we need Congress as a lesser evil because this is fascism’. So they don’t really have an independent programme. But the fact is we would need a workers’ government with a socialist programme. And you could see the same internationally in movements in other countries, like in Sri Lanka, the GenZ movements in Indonesia etc.
