PremiumAI Narration Listen 00:000.5x0.75x1x1.25x1.5x2xThank you for your feedback.Your feedback has been reported succesfully.Paranoid hysteria, on the part of governments, is usually seen when they feel insecure and confused. Is this what is happening? Whatever the reason, it is important for the Prime Minister to pay attention to the thousands of people who come out to join any protest organised by the Cockroach Janta Party.Rahul Gandhi being detained by police personnel after over eight-hour sit-in protest inside Akashvani Bhawan premises. (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav)5 min readOct 18, 2026 06:08 AM IST First published on: Oct 18, 2026 at 06:08 AM ISTIn the end, it was not the arrests and police repression that damaged the Cockroach Janta Party’s protest last week; it was the call for regime change. First, it came in murmurings from sundry activists who said that the real goal of the protests was to topple the Modi government. Then it came from Rahul Gandhi, who, as he often does, ended up helping the government instead of harming it. Exultant at the huge crowds that marched with him to the Supreme Court, he admitted loftily from his high perch on an open truck that after Gyanesh Kumar was forced out of office, it would be the turn for Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. He did not exactly say regime change, but what else is it?Soon after, Neha Bora, the heroine of last week’s protests, confirmed that it was from Bangladesh that she was inspired to use mobocracy to bring about regime change. Her political ideology is Marxist, which is not an ideology that fits well with electoral democracy, but she seems not to have noticed yet that India is not Bangladesh. Our democracy has its flaws, but elections have happened regularly, except during the Emergency. Governments can only be changed after general elections are won or lost. If people like Ms Bora were paid to sabotage the Cockroach Janta Party, they could not have done a better job. It is time for the cockroach leaders to take back control of the movement’s levers, or it will go steadily off the rails.© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd ShareWhatsapptwitterFacebook