Any cat to catch the mice
THREE parallel events now underway or recently held carry the potential in varying measure to reset Indiaโs destiny, in all likelihood for the better. From a birdโs eye view, the field looks set for a change. The fact that Germany lost the election for the first time in 40 years for a non-permanent memberโs seat at the UN Security Council offers stark lessons for the Modi government to ponder. Germany turned Palestine averse and cosied up to Israel, much like Narendra Modiโs India, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the saddle. The UN defeat is being linked to Merzโs embrace of Benjamin Netanyahu. British Prime Minister Keir Starmerโs future is also under a cloud, his ties with the Zionist lobby being a key factor. Ergo: Israelโs chums are being globally isolated. Indiaโs proximity to Israel was nudged by right-wing ideologues to counter Russian prime minister Yevgeny Primakovโs 1998 doctrine to form the Russia-India-China group as a stabilising force in a post-USSR Global South. The Western countermeasures included Americaโs โpivot to the eastโ, dragging India into the Quad. But when the RIC went on to become BRICS, a โWest Asian Quadโ was conceived including India, Israel, the UAE and the US. The faint outlines of the outcome of the Iran war are threatening to end Indiaโs entanglement with both Quads. And the German debacle at the UN is the writing on the wall. Potentially, also crucial for the countryโs future is the internet-spawned Cockroach Janta Party, which launched its first street protests in New Delhi over the weekend. The party minted into an untested force after a senior judge insulted unemployed youth as cockroaches. The โcockroachesโ have given a tart reply to the judiciary, but theyโre also demanding the resignation of Modiโs education minister, hitherto an unthinkable prospect. The third albeit widely underplayed event is the fractious INDIA opposition group seeking to get its act together. Twenty-three parties, including Mamata Banerjeeโs Trinamool Congress were holding a make-or-break meeting on Monday (June 8) under the Congress partyโs stewardship. All three events have the heft to cause tremors in the Modi establishment. Some say the jolt could be more rattling to him than he experienced in 12 years of unbridled power. Questions have surfaced over the Cockroach lot with insinuations that the cluster of motivated urban youth is supported by the Hindutva order to vent the steam gathering from months of a crippling economic crisis, not all of which is linked to the Iran war. There is also the issue of an overtly corrupt administration keeling over with criminal incompetence amid lacerating acts of omission and commission. Hundreds of thousands of school-leaving students and admission-seeking medical college aspirants have been grievously harmed by leaked papers and erring tabulation mechanisms. The Cockroach party has sought probity in judiciary, education and the nexus between business and the media, but its critics have sought to portray the group as left oriented with some of them belonging to this or that communist party. Another suggestion is that they are an extension of the Aam Aadmi Party, a ploy to shift the focus from the improving chances of opposition unity. Itโs a fact that AAP came out of the India Against Corruption campaign of 2011 in which the RSS played a backroom role to successfully undermine the Manmohan Singh government. Thereโs no need to spread fear of those such as the Cockroach party before they do something wrong. While the AAPโs birth pangs indeed created the grounds for the coronation of Narendra Modi as prime minister in May 2014, it is equally a fact that AAP was applauded the following year as the sheet anchor that stalled the BJP juggernaut in Delhi. Before this, the Modi wave had easily evicted Congress governments in Maharashtra and Haryana polls. And there was no AAP in Maharashtra to blame the defeat on, although in Haryana it did cut some votes. The AAP subsequently propagated a soft temple-hopping Hindutva, in which Arvind Kejriwal scrupulously avoided standing with Muslims when they were under attack from the BJP and the police in 2020. But if he or the Cockroach group can yet consciously or unwittingly help stall the rightward, obscurantist drift the Modi government has set India on, it would make Deng Xiaopingโs spirit burst into a smile. โIt doesnโt matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice.โ Dengโs dictum applies to anybody who would rescue India from its current trauma. And thereโs no need to spread fear of those such as the Cockroach party before they do something wrong. But letโs not get too swayed also by the shouts of youth power or the roar of something called Gen Z. As far as one could see, it was the youth that demolished the Babri Masjid with their raw sinews. Itโs the youth that goes about lynching and harassing innocent citizens in the name of religion. Of course, on the other side, itโs the youth thatโs languishing in Modiโs prisons, if they are not out on strictly monitored bail terms, for fighting for a just and equal society in a democratic system that doesnโt discriminate between citizens. Think Umar Khalid. Thereโs a youth component in almost every political party. The mighty US is split between youthful Zionists and their youthful adversaries. When I looked up Gen Z on a search engine, an option pointed to Gen Ziaul Haq! I think the idea of Gen Z or Gen Alpha etc is conjured to obscure the reality of universal class struggle, and in Indiaโs of its defining caste identity. A few donning cockroach masks at the Delhi rally were seen carrying portraits of Bhimrao Ambedkar thereby putting Dalit politics at the centre. But again, hasnโt everyone used Ambedkarโs portraits to lure support? Finally, while Dengโs point is priceless, a useful caution in T.S. Elliottโs line says: โYouth is cruel and has no remorse. It smiles at situations which it cannot see.โ A fair point to ponder. The writer is Dawnโs correspondent in Delhi. jawednaqvi@gmail.com Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2026