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'Wounds from CAA are fresh': Why young Muslims remained ambivalent about the 'cockroach' protests

Scroll | July 29, 2026 11:39 AM CST

Fatima listens to old speeches of the student-activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam before going to the gym these days. “They are like my pre-workout supplements,” the 28-year-old working for a media organisation in Delhi said jokingly.

Both Khalid and Imam had risen to prominence during the nationwide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019-’20 and have been in prison since then for their purported role in organising the 2020 Delhi riots.

Fatima, who like most people interviewed for this piece requested to not be identified by her real name, was a student at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests. When Delhi Police officials stormed into the university’s library with batons and tear gas on December 15, 2019, she was inside.

That is why she had been itching to go to the Jantar Mantar protest site ever since the police used excessive force to stop protesters from marching to Parliament on July 20. The Cockroach Janta Party, which started as a satirical meme page, had been leading protests against question paper leaks since June 6. However, for Fatima, questions about the ideology of those leading its protest came in the way.

“They don’t have clarity and they have no spine,” she complained, pointing to...