Maria Tavernini 26 August 2026
One image will be remembered as the poster of the massive “Cockroach movement” in India. A lady standing in front of a police van full of freshly arrested protesters, one hand stretched out against the metal hood: she refused to move, for 40 minutes, under heavy monsoon rain in Mumbai. The image broke the internet and went viral, capturing the essence of the protest that forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make one of his Union ministers step down after public uproar, for the first time in 12 years. A movement that has become a pain in the neck for the Indian PM, who has to deal with the fallout from one of the hardest challenges his government had to face in years.