Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
“The question that I have in my mind,” said Arundhati Roy, strolling around Jantar Mantar on Monday, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi sacrificed his education minister to quell youth anger, “is that does Modi know what was being said about him or is he protected from it?”
What began as a protest over an examination paper leak in May had turned into a raging storm last week after Delhi Police used lathis and pellets against youth protestors. In response to the police violence, young people unleashed a torrent of jokes and memes ridiculing the prime minister in language that Roy said was “delightfully profane”.
“I always think that humour is the distillation of politics,” said the writer, speaking to Scroll’s Executive Editor Supriya Sharma.
Roy said the ‘cockroach’ movement, which emerged out of a social media parody account, had already achieved more than what it had set out to do.
“To me, the greatest achievement of this movement is that a person who confected his image so carefully over literally 24 years, starting from 2002, a person who has never deigned to address a press conference, and is still called vishwaguru, avataar of vishnu and all that, suddenly gets stripped bare in two weeks by these kids.”
Camera / Production: Priyali Dhingra & Raghav Kakkar
Editing: Hyder Habib
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“The question that I have in my mind,” said Arundhati Roy, strolling around Jantar Mantar on Monday, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi sacrificed his education minister to quell youth anger, “is that does Modi know what was being said about him or is he protected from it?”
What began as a protest over an examination paper leak in May had turned into a raging storm last week after Delhi Police used lathis and pellets against youth protestors. In response to the police violence, young people unleashed a torrent of jokes and memes ridiculing the prime minister in language that Roy said was “delightfully profane”.
“I always think that humour is the distillation of politics,” said the writer, speaking to Scroll’s Executive Editor Supriya Sharma.
Roy said the ‘cockroach’ movement, which emerged out of a social media parody account, had already achieved more than what it had set out to do.
“To me, the greatest achievement of this movement is that a person who confected his image so carefully over literally 24 years, starting from 2002, a person who has never deigned to address a press conference, and is still called vishwaguru, avataar of vishnu and all that, suddenly gets stripped bare in two weeks by these kids.”
Camera / Production: Priyali Dhingra & Raghav Kakkar
Editing: Hyder Habib
Subscribe to Scroll's YouTube channel and turn on your notifications, so you don't miss new videos.
For more explainers, and the web’s most interesting videos - scroll.in/video
For the latest news and analysis - scroll.in
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