India's Instagram Gen Z dents Modi's aura ahead of key state polls

Nearly five weeks after leaders of India's youth Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) began their protest demanding the education minister's resignation over exam paper leaks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 75, posted a rare selfie video.

He said he was pained by the protesters' suffering and promised remedial steps.

How did India's Gen Z Instagram movement dent Modi's aura?

The video, posted late Thursday on Instagram, where CJP amassed 22 million mainly Gen Z followers within days in May, failed to satisfy thousands of protesters gathered in central Delhi. They had braved a massive police crackdown days earlier and inspired protests across the country. On Saturday, the education minister stepped down, meeting the protesters' main demand in a rare setback for Modi.

What does the education minister's resignation mean for Modi?

The resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan hands a clear win to the CJP, whose young supporters have openly mocked Modi through raps, placards and graffiti. Such open mockery was almost unthinkable only weeks earlier, in a country whose politics has been dominated by Modi since 2014. "A large number of people who were at the protest may actually be his supporters, and that's quite different from other kinds of protests in the past," said Sanjay Srivastava, anthropology professor at SOAS University of London.

"What might be interpreted as a win is the fact that there is now a much wider cross-section of people questioning the government. A much wider cross-section has begun to question the idea that the ruling party is necessarily good for the country," Srivastava added.

What triggered India's Gen Z protests against Modi?

The protests were triggered by a leaked medical-entrance exam, but analysts point to other underlying issues, mainly youth unemployment and fears that AI could take jobs in sectors like IT back offices, for which India is known. "The paper leak is a trigger point," political analyst Amitabh Tiwari said. "It is largely a reflection of the anxiety, nervousness, discontent, frustration and anger among the youth."

Modi's senior ministerial colleague Rajnath Singh said the government's "top priority remains to understand our students' genuine concerns, address them promptly, and ensure that they know their voices are being heard."

Why is the government seen as out of touch with Gen Z?

Indians aged 18 to 40 make up about 40% of the population but hold only around 10% of seats in the lower house of parliament, down from more than double that in the 1950s, Tiwari said. The cabinet's average age exceeds 60. Though the CJP is not a political party, opposition parties have tried to capitalize on the rare opening the protests have created against Modi by taking up the students' cause.

The first tests of youth anger could come in elections next year in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, along with Punjab and Modi's home state of Gujarat. The BJP runs both Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.

Could the Cockroach Janta Party become a political threat to Modi?

The bigger risk for Modi could lie in the 2029 national election if the CJP turns itself into a party. Its founder, Abhijeet Dipke, has said no decision has been made on joining electoral politics. Some analysts say young voters have historically cast ballots along religious or caste lines, benefiting Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, but that pattern may be shifting.

An actor, running for his own party and allied with opposition parties, was recently elected chief minister in the prosperous southern state of Tamil Nadu, propelled by his Instagram-first Gen Z fanbase. "This has been a moment of reckoning for PM Modi, and it shows how they are completely out of touch with what Gen Z wants," said author Anurag Minus Verma. "For years, the BJP's digital political strategy was centered on platforms like X, where much of the political conversation took place. But that conversation has increasingly shifted to Instagram now, particularly among younger users."

How does the BJP's Instagram following compare to the CJP's?

The BJP rules most of India and calls itself the world's largest political party, but it has managed just 10 million Instagram followers over several years, less than half what the CJP gained in days. The BJP has 23 million followers on X and 18 million on Facebook, though Modi's personal followers across all three platforms are far larger, ranging between 60 and 107 million. "You need a kind of authenticity for Instagram," said columnist Santosh Desai. "Pre-labored, carefully massaged messages won't work. This medium was created by this generation and has become what it has thanks to this generation. This generation has no reverence."

For a decade, Modi has governed as a strong, decisive figure who admits few mistakes, and his government had long resisted sacking ministers under pressure. Indian farmers had to protest for nearly a year before Modi repealed contentious farm laws in 2021. "From now, a leader who listens is likely to do well," Tiwari said. "And that is what Modi is trying to show."