Merely two weeks after India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, proclaimed a historic electoral victory in the state of West Bengal, the Indian political establishment found itself facing a curveball. 

On May 16, Abhijeet Dipke, a 30-year-old graduate of the public relations program at Boston University, launched a website of the satiric Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a parody on BJP, with a cockroach as a symbol. 

The reason? An off-the-cuff remark by the chief justice of India, Surya Kant, in an open court, who compared young people to cockroaches. 

“There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment or have any place in the profession. Some of them become media, some of them become social media, RTI (Right to Information) activists and other activists, and they start attacking everyone,” he said.

Kant later had to clarify that he wasn’t talking of India’s youth in general, but specifically those individuals entering the legal profession through “fake and bogus degrees.” 

The careless remark was a part of specific conversation that was clearly taken out of context.

But the damage had been done.

Overnight the fake “cockroach party” became a sensation as millions of young people took notice, creating a frenzy that seemed dangerously close to replicating the trajectory, and chaos, of GenZ revolutions that toppled governments in India’s neighborhood recently – Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal. 

The satire gained national and international media attention. Reports highlighted the fact that the number of followers of the parody party on social media exceeded the following of Modi's party.

The CJP’s Instagram account racked up 11.1 million followers in three days and is now at 22.5 million. By contrast, the BJP’s account has 9.4 million, despite being the dominant party in the country for about 12 years. The main opposition Congress party has 13.6 million followers. (Modi himself is in a different league, with 101 million.)

The CJP’s website lists more than a million followers as of this writing.

But a week later, on May 27, several key international outlets practically simultaneously published detailed reports on the “cockroach party” and its founder – specifically highlighting how it is a challenge to the Modi government. The timing was a coincidence hard to miss in the world of information warfare.

What did Western media say?

The Reuters report called the party “the largest online expression of dissent against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 12-year rule.”

“The lid on the discourse of discontent has been prised open, and the scuttling cockroaches may be hard to contain,” warned France24. 

The Washington Post followed the narrative: “The movement’s growth reflects the depth of frustration of a generation that feels unseen and unheard.”

The reason this coverage came all in one day, a week after the party made headlines and with no clear news development, can only be guessed. 

Furthermore, this coverage doesn’t come out of nowhere. In the past two years, a wave of GenZ protests has hit states in India's neighborhood. While they succeeded in toppling the governments, the problems that triggered them, including corruption and unemployment, remain. 

FT, in a report titled “India’s viral ‘cockroach party’ challenges Narendra Modi,” notes: “Economists say that despite relatively high economic growth, India faces a serious challenge from rising youth unemployment, with even graduates struggling to find decently paid jobs. India has also not experienced youth protest movements such as those in Nepal, Indonesia and Bangladesh in recent years. But the rapid march of the cockroach party has caused alarm.”

The idea is not new. In October, a BBC feature bluntly asked ”Why young Indians aren’t taking to the streets.”

Western media coverage appears to be following a familiar, well‑worn script, much like the “cockroach party” itself: a catchy name, a mascot, and a young “revolution leader” who instantly becomes a foreign media “darling.” 

Who is Abhijeet Dipke?

The founder of the satiric platform, according to his social media profiles, earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism in Pune and later moved to the US for higher education. 

Dipke recently graduated with a master’s degree in public relations from Boston University and remained in the US. 

Dipke was reportedly associated with India’s opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a rival of the BJP,  from 2020 to 2023. He volunteered with the party’s social media team and reportedly worked on meme-based digital campaigning during the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections, which the APP won. 

The APP is led by Arvind Kejriwal, an activist who rose to national prominence as an anti-corruption crusader. Kejriwal was briefly jailed in 2024 in connection with a liquor policy which authorities alleged gave undue advantages to private retailers. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court in September 2024 and was formally cleared by a court in February 2026, which closed the corruption case against him. 

Like Dipke now, Kejriwal was then branded by Western outlets as “Modi’s biggest critics” and “India’s Assange.” 

His arrest even triggered a diplomatic row between New Delhi and western capitals. After US State Department commented on the arrest of Kejriwal, New Delhi quickly summoned an American diplomat to “strongly object” to the remarks.

What CJP stands for 

The Cockroach Janta Party describes itself as a “satirical political movement that emerged in May 2026, in response to the public use of “cockroach” as a slur against young, unemployed and politically active Indians.”

As per the “eligibility criteria” on the CJP’s website, a person needs to be “unemployed, lazy, and chronically online” and should have the “ability to rant professionally” to join the party.

The CJP’s manifesto has five “non-negotiable” demands. This includes a ban on post-retirement seats in the Parliament for chief justices, action against the chief election commissioner for supposedly deleting legitimate votes, 50% of the makeup of Parliament to be women without increasing the size of the house, and a 20-year ban on legislators who “defect from one party to another.” 

Interestingly, the movement demands the cancellation of licenses of media houses owned by Indian tycoons Anil Ambani and Gautam Adani “to make way for truly independent media.” It also calls for a ban on accounts of ‘Godi media’ (a popular reference to news outlets that are uncritical towards the ruling BJP). 

For now the party remains a satire and online movement. While an Indian lawyer reportedly petitioned the Election Commission for formal recognition, it remains just a meme-driven online protest. 

How did the government respond? 

The Modi government quickly ordered social media platforms and internet service providers to block the CJP’s X account and website. The accounts were blocked after the Intelligence Bureau (IB) flagged them as a national security threat. Dipke created a second handle, “Cockroach is Back,” which remains active.

Dipke’s attempt to get back his initial X account received a further setback on Friday when the Delhi High Court refused his plea, saying it wants to hear the government’s argument first. It also said the content posted on the account was “slightly offensive.” 

The court, however, directed the deferral to the government to file a comprehensive response within four weeks and scheduled a hearing on the matter for July 6. It also ordered a review of the blocking order by the review committee constituted under the relevant rules governing online content blocking.

Kiren Rijiju, India’s minister for parliamentary affairs, posted on social media without mentioning Dipke, that he pitied those who “seek their followers in social media from Pakistan & George Soros gang.”

Dipke countered by sharing a screen recording of his Instagram audience analytics. The data claimed over 94% of his followers were based in India. 

Does CPJ have any reasoning? 

Justice Kant's remarks were like a spark to gunpowder. It is easy to see why. Almost two-thirds of India’s 1.4 billion population is under 35. However, what is termed by economists and strategic exerts as “India’s demographic dividend,” faces a hard reality check if ones looks at the data. 

According to the 2025 Periodic Labor Force Survey, while the national general unemployment rate hovers around 3.1%, the joblessness rate for people aged between 15 and 29 (which is more than a quarter of India’s population) was at 9.9%, with a stark disparity between rural (8.3%) and urban (13.6%) areas. Independent centers such as The Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) report much higher unemployment rates. Competition for jobs is intense in both the private and public sectors, and graduates often find themselves overqualified for the jobs they hold.

With India, one of largest energy importers globally, feeling the impact of the Middle East crisis, headlines about rising inflationary pressures, job losses, and a slowing economy are contributing to the growing anger among youths. 

Why the timing is important? 

The appearance of the CPJ came barely two weeks after the BJP swept to power in West Bengal, an eastern state that had long resisted its politics, and improved its electoral performance in a couple of other states. The BJP’s flag is now flying in most major state capitals and the party looked almost invincible. Indian voters seemed to have spurned the opposition in favor of Modi’s message of a strong India. 

The "cockroach" movement also spread right in the wave of the NEET paper leak, a massive scandal in India’s medical entrance system, where confidential question papers were illicitly accessed and sold to candidates before an exam. The breach compromised the integrity of the test, voiding results for over 2 million medical aspirants and forcing the government to order nationwide re-examinations.