Metamorphosis: ‘Cockroach’ grows into giant on social media

NEW DELHI: The X account of the satirical Cockroach Janta Party was withheld in India on Thursday even as its Instagram following crossed 18 million — more than that of BJP or Congress — by Thursday evening, within days of its launch. CJP's X page had amassed over 200,000 followers before being withheld due to “a legal demand”.

Within hours, screenshots of the blocked account flooded social media platforms, fuelling claims the movement had “rattled” the “establishment”. The online movement emerged after clips of remarks by CJI Surya Kant were widely circulated. After his remarks went viral, the CJI said sections of the media had misquoted his observations and wrongly suggested that he had criticised unemployed youth. Cockroach Janta Party popped up on May 16, a day after the CJI made his remarks, describing itself as “a political front of the youth, by the youth, for the youth — secular, socialist, democratic, and lazy”.



Its founder: Abhijeet Dipke, a 30-year-old former political communication strategist who is now a public relations student at Boston University

‘Cockroach’ satire morphs into protest
What began as online satire seems to have evolved into a wider youth-led protest centred on unemployment and economic anxiety. Cockroach Janata Party describes itself as the “voice of the lazy and unemployed” and has rapidly gained traction among students and young social media users through memes targeting joblessness, paper leaks, inflation and political elitism.

According to a statement founder Abhijeet Dipke gave to BBC Marathi, the idea emerged spontaneously amid the online backlash. “I thought we should all come together, maybe just start a platform,” he said. Dipke seized the moment by posting a Google form inviting users to join what he called “a new platform for all the cockroaches”.

A website and registration form soon went live, with lakhs signing up within five days. Its manifesto includes demands around judicial accountability, opposition to post-retirement Rajya Sabha appointments for judges, women’s reservation, anti-defection reforms and action against concentrated media ownership. By Thursday, its mix of absurdist humour and political messaging soon spilled offline.

At Kalindi Kunj in Delhi, a group of young volunteers participated in a Yamuna clean-up drive wearing cockroach costumes and antenna headbands while carrying placards reading “Mai cockroach hoon”. Students in Delhi and Pune also uploaded videos of mock “cockroach marches”, distributed parody membership slips and carried signs such as “rozgar do, extermination nahi” and “proud to be a cockroach”. As of Thursday evening, Dipke wrote on his X account that there were people “relentlessly” trying to hack into the Instagram page. In one video posted on CJP’s Instagram page,he said young people had begun embracing the label because “the system and institutions viewed us as insects”. “People are now taking pride in saying ‘I am a cockroach’.”