Dipke’s campaign speaks to frustrations among many young people in India, where unemployment among graduates under 25 runs at 40%, according to research from Azim Premji University in Bengaluru, and where competition for jobs and spots in top universities is notoriously fierce.

Dipke was himself job hunting in the US, where he had been finishing up his graduate studies, when India’s Chief Justice Surya Kant referred to unemployed youngsters as “parasites” and “cockroaches” during a courtroom hearing in May. The judge later said he had been misquoted by sections of the media.

Anger over the judge’s comments has been since stoked by a series of scandals that have recently swept the nation’s education system, long a trusted pathway for success among the nation’s youth. Last month, authorities canceled India’s largest medical entrance exam — taken by more than 2.27 million aspirants — after investigators found indications that questions had been circulating early.

A separate controversy erupted last month after test managers released erroneous results to a widely used high school graduation exam.

“In a society where so much of middle-class value is ingrained in terms of education — kids work hard and parents work harder to get them that education — that trust in the system is shaken,” said Yashwant Deshmukh, director of the Indian polling firm C-Voter.

‘Complete Overhaul’

The scandals have touched young Indians widely, posing a challenge for Modi’s government as the youths affected by them age onto voter rolls, Deshmukh said.

“I don’t remember any other issue or movement in the last 12 years which would have sounded troublesome for this government,” he said.

Dipke said many supporters viewed the examination controversies as evidence that institutions were failing them at a crucial stage of life.

“We need a complete overhaul of the education system, because the education system of India seems to be collapsing,” he said.

India’s Education Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dipke’s group has drawn comparisons to other so-called Gen-Z movements that have swept South Asia in recent years. In neighboring Bangladesh and Nepal, young people fed up with out-of-touch elites took to the streets to topple unpopular governments. Similar movements have swept countries from Southeast Asia to Africa.

Dipke said that while he sympathizes with such movements, the Cockroach Janta Party is a peaceful group that doesn’t aim to overthrow any government.

“The protest will be really peaceful and in a democratic manner, because the ruling party is already trying to dismiss and discredit this movement by comparing it with what happened in Nepal and Bangladesh,” he said. “I want to say nothing like that is going to happen here.”

Dipke, who previously worked as a communication strategist for the opposition Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi, downplayed his own political ambitions. He said it’s “too early” to say whether his movement could eventually become a registered political party that fields candidates and contests elections.

He’s also wary of aligning with India’s established political parties and wants instead to keep up the pressure on policymakers and draw attention toward education and employment.

“We are going to convert this movement into a kind of a pressure group that holds the government accountable,” he said, adding that politics should be centered on “the youth and the future.”

(Updates with details in eighth paragraph. An earlier version corrected the spelling of Aam Aadmi party in the 23rd paragraph.)

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