Curtin's Cast Episode 71 - 30 September 2026 - Viren Naidu on India's Gen Z 'Cockroach' Party

India’s Gen Z Revolt: Meet the Cockroach Janta Party

India’s young people are increasingly questioning whether education, hard work and competitive exams will deliver the secure future they were promised. Out of that frustration has emerged one of the world’s most unusual youth movements: the satirical Cockroach Janta Party.

Kos Samaras speaks with Viren Naidu, journalist and author of the New Statesman feature The facts of India’s Gen-Z revolt, about the movement’s origins, India’s youth unemployment crisis, the NEET scandal and the growing postponement of home ownership, marriage and family formation.

They discuss whether it makes sense to speak of a distinct Indian “Gen Z” across vast differences of class, caste, religion, gender and region; how memes and deliberately unserious language can carry serious political anger; and whether online mobilisation can develop into durable political organisation.

The conversation also explores why established parties have struggled to represent younger Indians, how economic disillusionment can coexist with support for Narendra Modi and the BJP, and what India’s generational revolt might tell us about Gen Z politics elsewhere — including Australia and its large Indian diaspora.

Read Viren Naidu’s New Statesman article ($):

https://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2026/07/the-facts-of-indias-gen-z-revolt