Chandigarh: The recent Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) campaign appears to have emboldened the silent majority among the malai – the colloquial term for India’s privileged urban cream of professionals, entrepreneurs, senior executives, academics, retired bureaucrats, military officers and other opinion-makers – to begin voicing their misgivings about Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata party-led (BJP-led) government after years of self-imposed silence. Never a particularly confrontational constituency, the malai has traditionally preferred discretion to activism and accommodation to conflict. In fact, many among its storied ranks had enthusiastically embraced Modi’s rise in 2014, seeing in him a decisive leader who promised economic growth, corruption-free administrative efficiency, and renewed national confidence. Yet, as doubts accumulated over time and aspirations and hope faded, most of this class followed the path of least resistance: private complaint, public acquiescence and the comforting assumption that little could challenge a leader who appeared politically and electorally unassailable.Also read: The Boomer Government Needs to Stop Talking at Gen Z and Start Talking to ThemPolitical scientists describe this as the ‘spiral of silence’ or the tendency of individuals to suppress opinions they believe are unpopular or personally costly to express. For much of the past 12 years, Modi’s immense popularity, reinforced by repeated electoral victories and amplified by a formidable political, media and digital machinery, had forged precisely such an environment. Many who privately disagreed with the government feared being branded anti-national, anti-Hindu, or otherwise portrayed as standing outside the mainstream. In a political climate where loyalty to the government was often conflated with patriotism, silence frequently emerged as the safer option.Such caution was particularly visible amongst the malai. Unease was never confined to a tiny minorityNever renowned for political courage, it generally kept one eye firmly fixed on the main chance and preferred to adjust to power rather than confront it. Yet, alongside this instinct for self-preservation also existed a modicum of attachment to civility, institutional stability and a preference for consensus over aggression. Those instincts now appear to be resurfacing in light of the CJP defiance, as many within this class increasingly find themselves at odds with a political culture that prizes confrontation over consensus, blind loyalty and naked aggression over restraint and decency.The electoral arithmetic also suggests that this unease was never confined to a tiny minority.In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, for instance, the BJP secured around 36.6% of the national vote and the overarching National Democratic Alliance (NDA) around 43%, leaving roughly 57% of voters, including the malai, supporting parties outside the ruling coalition. And, even when the BJP won outright parliamentary majorities on its own in 2014 and 2019, its national vote share stood at only about 31.3% and 37.4%, respectively.But paradoxically, over the past 12 years the public atmosphere often conveyed the opposite impression: that critics of the government were few, isolated and politically irrelevant. In reality, they were always more numerous than many imagined; yet socially and politically they behaved as though they were overwhelmingly outnumbered, reluctant to voice their views openly, organise collectively or acknowledge the extent of their own numbers.The CJP movement appears to have miraculously altered that calculation. Confidence to say aloud what was previously discussed only in privateLargely social media-driven, the CJP campaign bypassed conventional political structures and relied instead on the viral power of digital networks. Its significance lay not merely in the issues it highlighted, but in the tone it adopted: irreverent, mocking and deliberately provocative.Rather than treating authority with the customary deference that has increasingly characterised public discourse in recent years, it subjected it to humour, ridicule and disdain. Memes, jokes, satirical videos and cutting one-liners travelled far more rapidly than formal political arguments, allowing the campaign to reach audiences that conventional opposition messaging often struggles to engage.“BJP – Bharat Jalao Party” which means “BJP – Burn India Party,” wrote protesters in Delhi. Photo: Special Arrangement.It’s an established axiom that few things unsettle authority more than being ridiculed and burlesqued. Governments can withstand criticism, rebut accusations and denounce opponents, but ridicule is harder to combat because it strips power of its mystique and the fear it engenders. It converts what appears formidable into something faintly absurd. And, once leaders become objects of humour rather than awe, the aura of inevitability surrounding them begins to weaken, and the fear that often protects authority begins to erode.For many among the cautious malai, the CJP campaign appears to have provided precisely such an opening. It demonstrated that criticism of the government could be expressed openly and publicly without disastrous consequences and in doing so, the CJP protest gave many of this lot the confidence to say aloud what they had previously discussed only in private.Also read: Has the Chance For Education Reform Been Lost?Consequently, conversations in drawing rooms, clubs, corporate gatherings, restaurants, hotel lounges and cafés over the past fortnight seem more candid than they have been in years. Individuals who once avoided discussing politics openly are increasingly willing to question government policies, debate institutional performance and voice concerns that had previously remained unspoken. What is also difficult to ignore is the sense that a constituency long resigned to silence has, at least for now, rediscovered the confidence to speak. One manifestation of this gradual abatement of fear of the BJP-created system was the logistical support the CJP campaign received from individuals who preferred to remain anonymous. Many who were unwilling to join the protests publicly participated vicariously by arranging food and water deliveries, contributing funds or quietly assisting with various bandobusts or arrangements. These understated, but essential acts of solidarity allowed them to signal support without stepping fully into the public arena.Thereafter, the CJP’s success in forcing the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan appears to have had both a psychological and political impact on these hesitant sections of the privileged classes, reminding many among them of something they had gradually ceased to believe: that organised public dissent could still compel political accountability.Also read: ‘Harassed for Supporting Cockroaches’: Police Intimidate Restaurants For Delivering to Jantar Mantar By showing that criticism could be expressed openly and irreverently without immediate catastrophe, the CJP crusade appears to have weakened the inhibitions that had kept this traditionally cautious constituency silent for years.But this should not be mistaken for an imminent anti-BJP wave. The Hindu nationalist party continues to command substantial support across large sections of the electorate, and many who express dissatisfaction with aspects of its governance may still regard it as the most credible political option available. However, what does appear to have changed, undoubtedly, is the public atmosphere. But whether this develops into a lasting shift in public discourse or dissipates as a brief episode of political catharsis remains to be seen. The CJP protest undoubtedly breached a psychological barrier by demonstrating that repressive authority can be challenged, but the far more difficult task is converting that awakening into a sustained political force capable of offering solutions rather than merely expressing discontent.