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World📡 New York TimesBy Showkat Nanda and Anupreeta DasJul 26, 2026👁 0 views

The Accidental Hero Who Faced Down India’s Government

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The Accidental Hero Who Faced Down India’s Government

Abhijeet Dipke founded the Cockroach Janta Party as a joke after a judge insulted young people. The idea snowballed into a generational movement that has challenged the country’s leaders.

Abhijeet Dipke, center, at a protest in New Delhi on Saturday.Credit...Saumya Khandelwal for The New York Times
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Abhijeet Dipke founded the Cockroach Janta Party as a joke after a judge insulted young people. The idea snowballed into a generational movement that has challenged the country’s leaders.

Abhijeet Dipke, center, at a protest in New Delhi on Saturday.Credit...Saumya Khandelwal for The New York Times

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Showkat Nanda reported from Jantar Mantar, New Delhi’s main protest site.

July 26, 2026Updated 5:12 p.m. ET

Abhijeet Dipke peered at the phone screen to see with his own eyes if what he’d just heard was true. For more than two months, Mr. Dipke had led a protest movement demanding the resignation of India’s education minister — and now, he had gotten his wish.

Mr. Dipke fell to his knees and repeatedly punched the makeshift stage at New Delhi’s main protest site in excitement. Then he rose up, grabbed a microphone and delivered the news to the sea of protesters around him.

“Long live student power,” Mr. Dipke shouted, pumping his fist repeatedly. “We have done it!”

The crowd erupted into deafening applause, cheering, pumping their fists into the air and sharing group hugs. Mr. Dipke, 30, who had already built a gigantic following after founding a movement through which India’s youth could channel their frustrations, had cemented his status as a folk hero.

He had taken on the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and scored a victory.

Video
Reacting to the news on Saturday that India’s education minister had resigned.CreditCredit...Saumya Khandelwal for The New York Times
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Leaders of the protest celebrating the resignation. Mr. Dipke had already built a gigantic following after founding a movement through which India’s youth could channel their frustrations.Credit...Saumya Khandelwal for The New York Times

Barely two months before, Mr. Dipke was just another “international student from India,” with a master’s degree in public relations from Boston University, squeezing in workouts in between applying for jobs and playing FIFA soccer on his PlayStation, he said in an interview on Saturday from his perch onstage.

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    By Showkat Nanda and Anupreeta Das

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