This carnival of protest on the streets of Delhi has shaken Narendra Modi like nothing before

I n July, as supporters of the Cockroach movement took to Jantar Mantar , the designated protest site in Delhi, incensed over exam-paper leaks and demanding the resignation of India’s education minister, the rest of the nation realised that for the first time since the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) came to power in 2014, the curse of inertia and the grip of fear had been smashed irrevocably. Prime minister Narendra Modi’s image of invincibility has been punctured.

People in India have been conditioned to believe in an idea of intense slow-burn protests that eventually bring change – but the Cockroach Janta party (CJP) has shown us that the revolution can be fast-tracked.

This time the Cockroaches are demanding the resignation of India’s chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, following reports in the Indian Express in late September that he had pushed through a purge of voter rolls . Round one of the Cockroach protests came to an end because the BJP was willing to sacrifice the education minister. Round two does not allow for such scapegoating. If Kumar goes, Modi must go too – it would be an open admission that the electoral system has been compromised.