The Cockroach movement protesters used memes, mockery and collective action to cut through mainstream media’s refusal to tackle problems plaguing the country’s politics
Niha Masih
Hello! Welcome to This Is India from the Guardian. I’m Niha Masih and I’ll be writing to you every week about the stories, ideas and news makers of modern India. I’ll do a deep dive into one story – from politics and internet culture to tech and entertainment – and round up key events, trends and debates that are dominating the discourse among Indians, especially the youth.
It’s impossible to start anywhere other than the Cockroach movement, which captured headlines worldwide. When gen Z protesters poured on to the streets of central Delhi, they weren’t just taking on the mighty establishment of prime minister Narendra Modi – they also confronted another powerful institution: India’s mainstream television media.
At Jantar Mantar, an 18th-century observatory that has long served as the capital’s designated protest site, the protesters chanted slogans about examination leaks, calling for freedom, for justice, fighting against oppression, with expletive-laden profanities directed at political leaders, communal politics and “godi”, or lapdog, media. Reporters from mainstream media were heckled, chased away or even beaten.
This crystallisation of anger was a reflection of the dissonance between what protesters on the ground saw and experienced and what viewers were being shown on television screens. For those not at the demonstrations, social media provided a window into what played out. For some, the contrast was a reminder of the warning posed by George Orwell in his book Nineteen Eighty-Four, about a society being asked to disbelieve their own eyes and ears.
The Cockroach movement had called for a march to parliament on 20 July, demanding the resignation of the education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, over a recent examination paper leak. Thousands of people converged on the capital, and law enforcement authorities carried out a violent crackdown, deploying teargas and pellet guns against them, and beating back protesters with batons. On one street, I saw teargas fired at the crowd. But when protesters ran for cover, they were met with another volley from that direction, trapping them.
“The police beat us so badly. Some had blood flowing down their skulls and their noses were broken,” 17-year-old Deeksha Mishra told the Guardian’s south Asia correspondent, Hannah Ellis-Petersen. An initial estimate from the Cockroach movement put the number of wounded protesters at about 150.
Television channels, however, framed the crackdown as simply “clashes”. Using the term “agitators”, New Delhi Television (NDTV) questioned whether those on the streets were “mobilised ‘mobs’”. On social media, Times Now cast the protesters as anarchists and highlighted police statements about injuries to cops. Republic TV promised an “explosive exposé” on the protests, urging their viewers to call in with their opinions about what they described as “anarchy”. They sought to link an American embassy security advisory, issued before the march, as indication of foreign involvement. ANI, India’s influential news agency and a major supplier of video footage to channels, shared no posts on X on 20 July about the police action or injuries sustained by protesters, according to an analysis published by factchecking outlet Alt News.
This coverage was not an aberration, but part of the profound transformation of mainstream media, especially television news, during Modi’s 12 years as prime minister. As the government consolidated its hold on power, prime-time shows came to be seen as an extension of the ruling party’s agenda, rather than spaces where those in power could be questioned. Night after night, in shrill debates, the channels targeted and attacked the opposition, human rights activists, critics, members of minority communities, academics and others. It was in this environment that the phrase “godi media”, coined by the veteran journalist Ravish Kumar, became common parlance….
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