A major political firestorm has erupted across the country after the actress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament Kangana Ranaut’s criticism against the students who have taken part in recent student protests in Delhi. Youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protests at Jantar Mantar had galvanized national politics; the government replaced the Minister for Education (Dharmendra Pradhan) with the new Minister for Education and Science (Sushil Kumar) and started a dialogue on the matter. But the dust was soon up when we walked out of the street and it was a culture and politics war as soon as the Mandi MP said it.
Kangana Ranaut took to her social media accounts and went on a blistering tirade against the digital content, reels and general language of Gen Z protesters during the agitation. She called the viral videos from demonstration sites “puke-inducing” and said she was horrified at the visual and sound of the demonstrations in the protests. She criticized the crude slogans, placards and language of the youths so much that she had never seen such jarring and vulgar behavior, which she found to be in such a rude and crude manner from every frame. She even questioned the home-grown nature of the demonstrators’ own development and the reality that everyone in a nation was responsible for raising a generation that exhibited such public behavior.
The BJP politician also commented on the movement’s unique use of the “cockroach” label, a joke that the protesters adopted to mock administrative apathy. Ranaut said there was no conceptual paradox in the label, saying that demonstrators looked and acted like the insects, so that society was “filth, garbage and ugliness.” In later posts she also targeted young Westernized female participants and referred to them as Generation Gutter. She said some of them did not go to school, lived off parental money, and wanted to be completely autonomous and did not represent traditional or accountable values.
Ranaut’s strong condemnation immediately drew strong opposition from parties in the opposition, who claimed the government had a deep-seated hatred for the youth and student community. Senior Congress leader Bhai Jagtap seemed to be shocked at the MP’s words, saying they were in stark contrast to the physical hardships, lathi charges and police brutality faced by young demonstrators and student leaders during the marches. Likewise, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Waris Pathan strongly condemned the language used, asking if the actor-turned-politician was aware of the academic issues of NEET and demanded a public apology to the entire Gen Z population.
Political analysts believe that Ranaut’s remarks have reignited the polarized debate on political dissent, the media and social media protest aesthetics, and the role played by elected representatives in youth-driven civic movements. Although the CJP leadership has largely moved on to securing legal protection and monitoring FIR withdrawals at the state level, the cultural implications of the clash between mainstream political leaders and digitally native youth groups still permeate our nation’s national headlines.
