New Delhi: Acclaimed author and activist Arundhati Roy has said that the Cockroach Janta Party-led youth protest at Jantar Mantar destroyed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public image of more than two decades in just two weeks, calling it a political blow “bigger than any election victory”.
Roy made the remarks on August 3, 2026, at the launch of the Hindi translation of her book Mother Mary Comes to Me, titled Meri Maa, Meri Gangster, at the India International Centre in New Delhi.
“The image of 24 years, made by spending crores of rupees, not even addressing a press conference, where some call him the incarnation of Vishnu, and in two weeks, cockroaches have destroyed that whole 24 years,” Roy told a packed hall.
She argued that while electoral victories and defeats represent only one aspect of politics, the recent public mobilisation proved that narratives built over decades could be shaken within weeks. “In two weeks, it was shaken a little, from the roots,” she said.
However, Roy cautioned that the challenge remained far from over. “If this government keeps the institutions or levers of power, then it will be very difficult for us,” she warned. She urged opposition parties and civil society to work together to defend democratic institutions.
Roy also praised the maturity shown by young protesters at Jantar Mantar, drawing an analogy with members of a musical band. “The bass guitarist can’t be the singer, the singer can’t be the drummer. They all played their roles differently. Now the adults also have to show their maturity,” she said.
The Booker Prize-winning author of The God of Small Things also reflected on what drives her writing. Recounting a childhood incident in which her brother was beaten for poor grades while she was rewarded for excelling, Roy said that experience shaped her understanding of privilege and injustice.
“People think I am a successful writer. They felicitate me, they give me prizes, they give me the Booker, but in the other room, someone is being beaten. The whole of my writing is about that,” she said.
Expanding on the point, Roy said that “someone is being beaten” everywhere, in Gaza, at a bus stand, in a village, at Jantar Mantar, and that her work consistently tries to draw attention to those who remain unseen.
Meri Maa, Meri Gangster, translated by Prabhat Singh and published by Rajkamal Prakashan, centres on Roy’s relationship with her mother Mary Roy, a celebrated educator and women’s rights activist. Roy described the book as neither autobiography nor biography, but “the biography of a relationship”.
She concluded with a call to resist normalising injustice. “Now we have to show that we will not be beaten anymore,” Roy said.
