At the main site of India’s momentous youth protests in New Delhi, municipal workers have already painted over anti-government graffiti and jet-washed the streets — but the mark made by the student-led movement on the nation’s politics will be much harder to remove.
In just 36 days, the upstart Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) mobilised hundreds of thousands of students over failings in the exam system, forcing a rare climbdown by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the resignation of his education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan.
After years in which protests were largely ignored or suppressed in India and Modi dominated the political narrative, the CJP’s humbling of his government has already inspired one copycat protest movement and analysts expect more to appear.