Just a few months ago, everything was coming up roses for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Hindu nationalist political party — which has controlled India’s federal government since 2014 — had just secured an unprecedented landslide state legislative victory in West Bengal. Traditionally a stronghold of rival parties, it was one of the few remaining centres of opposition to BJP rule, and its capture gave the party control of 20 of 28 state legislatures and an even tighter grip over the country's politics.
Then, a top judge compared a bunch of young people to cockroaches.
On May 15, Supreme Court Chief Justice Surya Kant was hearing a case that he felt was particularly frivolous and got so worked up that he went on a tirade against young unemployed Indians. “There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment or have any place in the profession,” Kant said. “Some of them become media, some of them become social media… and they start attacking everyone.” The backlash was swift, and a clarification by Kant that he was only talking about a select few young people, not all of them, did nothing to stem the anger.
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