India’s viral Gen-Z ‘Cockroach Party’ protesters are gearing up for Season 2

India’s “Cockroach Party” started out in May as a Gen-Z internet joke that went viral. In July, it forced the government into its biggest climbdown in years.

Now the “Cockroaches” are back for what they’re billing as Season 2 of their political carnival.

This time their target is the 62-year-old chief of the Election Commission that holds the keys to their democracy – the world’s largest – and who, they allege, is responsible for disenfranchising tens of millions of their fellow citizens.

The Cockroach Janta Party takes its name from an off-the-cuff remark by India’s chief justice, who in May allegedly used the words “cockroaches” and “parasites” to refer to groups of unemployed youth in the country. He later claimed he was misquoted, but CJP founder and Boston University graduate Abhijeet Dipke ran with it, hailing the insect’s stubbornness and indestructibility.

The movement then joined nationwide protests demanding the removal of the education minister over an exam paper leaks scandal, harnessing widespread anger at the lack of opportunities for young people and sparking moments that captured India’s internet.

Harrowing police chases became viral comedy. Reels captured everything from dancing and DJ parties at protest sites and songs mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Other clips played on FOMO and nudged friends to get off their phones and join the protests.

And there was free food. So much free food that organizers eventually had to ask supporters across the country to stop sending it .

Then, after weeks of sit-ins and marches, Dharmendra Pradhan, the education minister, stepped down, a rare blow to Modi’s government, and one that more established opposition parties have been unable to land.

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The target of Saturday’s protests is Gyanesh Kumar, the head of the Electoral Commission that’s currently in the middle of a gargantuan exercise to remove dead, duplicate and otherwise ineligible voters from the voter lists. Opposition parties say the commission is stripping out eligible voters to benefit Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, claims the BJP and the commission deny.

CNN has reached out to the election commission and BJP for a response.

More mainstream political parties are calling for the same thing, but now Dipke is calling supporters of the CJP back to Jantar Mantar, the historic protest ground in the center of the capital New Delhi, for “Season 2.”

Organizers hope tens of thousands will come out.

The CJP said police in several states were detaining thousands of its supporters as they headed for Saturday’s protest. The government ordered mobile internet services to be temporarily suspended within a 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) radius of central Delhi’s prominent Janpath Kartavya Path crossing.

Reuters on Saturday reported central Delhi was sealed with thousands of police and paramilitaries.

The news agency also reported that some long-distance trains to Delhi were canceled on Friday and more than 50 metro stations shut.

Amnesty International issued a statement Friday saying Delhi police “must facilitate the right to peaceful protest amid lockdown-like restrictions.”

Muskaan, 19, a video editor based in Delhi and veteran of the first round of CJP demonstrations, is weighing whether to go again, she told CNN.

Attending the first round of “Cockroach” protests, she had been expecting the police violence she had seen on television, she said, asking only to use her first name. She’d only gone because her friends had, she said.

“But when we went there, there was a lot of fun… People were playing songs, dancing, and really good memes on banners.”

Once she was there, she learned much more about the exam leaks and how they had affected people’s lives.

Muskaan says she was pleased when Pradhan resigned, but also disappointed that the protests ended so quickly. “I felt that it was too soon, that we should have got another chance to go again,” she said.

Chief Election Commissioner Kumar is a very different target.

Removing him would require a formal parliamentary process and a special majority in both houses. The opposition doesn’t have the numbers.

That leaves the CJP facing a different test. Its first campaign showed that an online joke could become a street movement and generate political pressure. Season 2 is asking whether that formula can work on a much bigger issue: India’s gargantuan electoral system.

For a movement born from memes, the protests beginning on Saturday in the capital will test whether that irreverent energy can translate into pressure on an institution at the heart of India’s democracy.

印度的“蟑螂党”起源于5月份Z世代的一个网络玩笑，并迅速走红。到了7月份，它迫使政府做出了多年来最大的让步。

现在，“蟑螂帮”带着他们所谓的政治嘉年华第二季回归了。

这一次，他们的目标是62岁的选举委员会主席，他掌握着该国民主制度（世界上最大的民主制度）的钥匙，他们声称，正是他剥夺了数千万同胞的选举权。

蟑螂人民党（Cockroach Janta Party，简称CJP）的名字来源于印度首席大法官的一句即兴言论。据称，这位首席大法官在五月份用“蟑螂”和“寄生虫”来指代印度的失业青年群体。他后来声称自己被断章取义，但CJP的创始人、波士顿大学毕业生阿比吉特·迪普克（Abhijeet Dipke）却以此为灵感，大肆宣扬蟑螂的顽强和不死之身。

随后，该运动加入了全国范围内的抗议活动，要求撤换因考试试卷泄露丑闻而受到牵连的教育部长，利用了年轻人缺乏机会的普遍愤怒情绪，引发了轰动印度互联网的事件。

惊险刺激的警匪追逐场面竟成了网络爆红的喜剧素材。Reels 记录了抗议现场的各种活动，从跳舞、DJ 派对到嘲讽总理纳伦德拉·莫迪的歌曲，应有尽有。其他一些视频则利用人们的“害怕错过”（FOMO）心理，鼓励朋友们放下手机，加入抗议活动。

而且还有免费食物。免费食物多到组织者最终不得不请求全国各地的支持者停止寄送。

随后，经过数周的静坐示威和游行，教育部长达尔门德拉·普拉丹辞职，这对莫迪政府来说是一次罕见的打击，也是更成熟的反对党一直未能取得的成就。

Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images

周六抗议活动的目标是选举委员会主席贾内什·库马尔。该委员会目前正在进行一项规模庞大的工作，旨在从选民名单中清除已故、重复登记以及其他不符合资格的选民。反对党称，选举委员会此举是为了使莫迪领导的印度人民党受益，但印度人民党和选举委员会均否认了这些指控。

CNN已联系选举委员会和印度人民党寻求回应。

更多主流政党也提出了同样的要求，但现在迪普克呼吁CJP的支持者回到首都新德里市中心的历史悠久的抗议场所简塔曼塔，参加“第二季”活动。

组织者希望有数万人参加。

中央正义运动党（CJP）表示，多个邦的警方在数千名支持者前往参加周六抗议活动时将其拘留。政府下令暂时关闭德里市中心著名路口詹帕特·卡尔塔维亚路（Janpath Kartavya Path）方圆4公里（2.5英里）范围内的移动互联网服务。

路透社周六报道称，德里市中心已被封锁，数千名警察和准军事人员进驻。

该新闻机构还报道称，周五一些开往德里的长途列车被取消，超过 50 个地铁站关闭。

国际特赦组织周五发表声明称，德里警方“必须在类似封锁的限制措施下保障民众和平抗议的权利”。

19 岁的 Muskaan 是一名居住在德里的视频剪辑师，也是第一轮 CJP 示威活动的参与者，她告诉 CNN，她正在考虑是否再次参加。

她说，参加第一轮“蟑螂”抗议活动时，她预料到会看到电视上看到的警察暴力执法场面。她要求只透露自己的名字。她说，她去只是因为朋友们都去了。

“但我们去那里的时候，玩得很开心……人们在唱歌、跳舞，横幅上还有非常棒的表情包。”

到了那里之后，她对考试泄题事件以及泄题事件对人们生活的影响有了更深入的了解。

穆斯坎表示，她对普拉丹辞职感到高兴，但也对抗议活动结束得如此之快感到失望。“我觉得结束得太快了，我们应该还有一次机会，”她说。

首席选举专员库马尔则是一个截然不同的目标。

罢免他需要经过正式的议会程序，并且需要在两院都获得特别多数票。反对党没有足够的票数。

这使得CJP面临着不同的考验。它的第一次活动表明，一个网络玩笑可以演变成一场街头运动，并产生政治压力。第二季则要探讨这种模式是否适用于一个更大的问题：印度庞大的选举制度。

对于一场源于网络迷因的运动而言，周六在首都开始的抗议活动将检验这种不敬的能量能否转化为对印度民主核心机构的压力。