On July 20, Navkiran Natt and her partner set out for the magistrate's office in New Delhi to get married.
asserted
Natt → set → Delhi
They arrived to find a tense situation, with police gathering to break up a youth-led march on Parliament.
asserted
police → arrive → Parliament
Office staff — and couple's wedding witnesses — running late due to barricades.
asserted
staff → run → barricades
The protest movement known as the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) had announced the march to demand the resignation of India's then-Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
asserted
movement → know → Minister
The protesters were met with heavy resistance from security forces, who had deployed batons, tear gas shells and pellet-firing shotguns, leading to injuries and mass detentions.
asserted
who → meet → injuries
Less than three months later, on October 10, Natt left home early in the morning and spent the day crisscrossing the locked-down Indian capital looking for a protest she could join.
uncertain
she → leave → protest
"The success of this protest is not how many people will reach Jantar Mantar," she told DW, referring to the protest site in central New Delhi.
asserted
she → reach → Delhi
"It's that even after all this barricading and state violence, people are leaving their homes to join."
asserted
people → leave → homes
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.
asserted
justice → begin → remark
The name is an ironic riff on the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
asserted
name → rule → Party
After succeeding in seeing Pradhan step down in late July, the CJP is now demanding the resignation of the country's controversy-hit Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, after more than 130 million names were removed from draft electoral rolls nationwide.
asserted
names → succeed → rolls
With CJP leadership in judicial custody or under threat of detention, one name has fast become synonymous with the demonstrations: student leader Neha Bora, who prefers to use the pronoun they/them.
asserted
who → become → pronoun
Bora has run through the streets to dodge police officials, climbed barricades in the face of security personnel, shouted slogans from detention vans, and addressed press conferences alongside CJP spokespersons and others.
They are the president of the All India Students' Association (AISA), the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation (CPI-ML).
"In extremely disappointing, fearful, tyrannical times, people try to gather hope from whatever source they can …
asserted
they → run → hope
If these people are fighting, then probably we can also fight," Bora told DW.
asserted
Bora → fight → DW
"It is a responsibility that you owe to people," they added.
asserted
they → owe → people
The Cockroach-led demonstrations also come at a time when women and members of the LGBTQ+ community are calling for greater autonomy for women in the aftermath of the gang rape of a 17-year-old girl in New Delhi late last month, placing the issue of safety in India back into the spotlight.
asserted
women → lead → spotlight
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 441,534 cases of crimes against women were registered in 2024, averaging 1,210 cases per day.
uncertain
cases → accord → day
Experts say these official statistics can only give a partial account of gendered violence.
asserted
statistics → say → violence
But despite facing sexualized backlash from police on the streets and from online mobs, the women and genderqueer people leading the movement reject being cast as victims.
asserted
women → face → victims
"The "beti bachao" [save the daughter] thing just doesn't cut it with this generation.
asserted
thing → save → generation
It is a very specific ask: see us as political beings, free beings," activist Kavita Krishnan told DW.
asserted
Krishnan → see → DW
"Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao" (Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter) is a flagship BJP government program launched in 2015.
asserted
Padhao → save → 2015
Protest as daily life
These days, Gurmeher Kaur's day starts like any other — a workout or a yoga class — and often ends with Indian Youth Congress's lawyers getting her released from police detention.
asserted
her → start → detention
"Resistance can't be a separate event … a big day, and then you go back to your regular life," she told DW.
asserted
she → go → DW
The 29-year-old author of "The Young and the Restless: Youth and Politics in India" spent a better part of the last decade in the public eye.
asserted
author → spend → eye
This year, she joined the youth wing of India's main opposition party, The Congress, whose offices are located a stone's throw away from Jantar Mantar, the hub of the last wave of protests.
asserted
offices → join → protests
She said her political association has given her access to resources that can support the movement, offering a safety net for protesters "regardless of their political affiliation."
At a time when authorities are cracking down on CJP protesters, she said opposition members like her have a duty to fulfill: "Show up, put your body on the line."
asserted
members → say → line
The price of visibility
But showing up often comes with a cost, especially for women and queer protesters.
asserted
showing → show → women
Kaur explains how male colleagues often "feel quite elated when their photos are in the media."
asserted
photos → explain → media
However, for her, "attention is equal to death and rape threats and humiliation and abuse."
Natt, an activist most significantly associated with the 2020–2021 farmers' protests, echoes Kaur's experience.
asserted
Natt → associate → experience
"If a woman is leading the protest, the first attack is on her sexuality," she said.
asserted
she → lead → sexuality
Social media images have shown women protesters with their clothes torn during clashes with police.
asserted
clothes → show → police
Delhi officials have denied allegations of manhandling, adding that women protesters were treated with "dignity."
Bora refutes the police's claim, saying that a small number of female personnel were available to handle a large number of women protesters.
uncertain
number → deny → protesters
"Several women protesters came to protect me and prevent me from getting detained," they said.
asserted
they → come → me
Authorities have registered a police case against a journalist who accused a senior Delhi police officer of sexual harassment under an Indian law meant to prevent crimes against members of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs).
asserted
who → register → Castes
They say her own allegations are under investigation.
asserted
allegations → say → investigation
The internet was also flooded with AI-made, sexualized images of women protesters edited into protest photos.
asserted
internet → flood → photos
Why activists say the tactic is failing
This has not prevented protesters from taking to the streets even the day after being detained by authorities.
asserted
This → say → authorities
"They don't know what they're dealing with," Krishnan said, referring to the government's crackdown on demonstrators.
asserted
Krishnan → know → demonstrators
She said authorities assume sexual humiliation will scare women off, but "this is not a generation that thinks of… sexual violence as being something shameful."
asserted
that → say → violence
…and 9 more, not listed.
The Aporia
