Parody Cockroach Janta political party’s rise reflects youth anger in India | India

It started as a satirical online project after India’s chief justice compared unemployed youth to cockroaches. Now millions of young Indians are flocking here to vent their frustrations.

The parody political party, whose symbol is the insect, exploded on India’s social media by turning absurd humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, unemployment and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users have adopted the cockroach, known for its ability to survive harsh conditions, as a playful symbol of resilience.

The rise of the online movement has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta (people’s) party, or CJP, launched its website and social media accounts on Saturday. As of Thursday, its Instagram page had reached more than 15 million followers, far surpassing the 8.8 million of Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) on the platform.

“None of this was intentional,” said CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, a political communications strategist and student at Boston University in the US.

He said the rise of the movement reflected growing disillusionment among young Indians. “It was actually young people who were very frustrated. They had no way out. They were really angry at the government.”

The CJP emerged online after supreme court chief justice Surya Kant triggered a backlash among young Indians angered by unemployment, rising costs of living and the recent leak of government exam papers that has disrupted recruitment efforts.

At last week’s hearing, Kant criticized what he described as “parasites” attacking institutions and compared some unemployed youth and activists to cockroaches.

Kant said, “There are young people like cockroaches who cannot find any job and have no place in a profession.” Some turned to social media activism, journalism or public interest campaigns and “started attacking everyone,” he said.

The comments quickly spread online, with many finding them condescending. Kant later clarified that his remarks were in reference to people who received fake degrees and said that he did not intend to insult the youth of India.

But the controversy soon led to the creation of the CJP account on Instagram, which adopted the cockroach as its political symbol and began posting memes, fake campaign slogans and satirical comments targeting the Modi government. Within days, he had gathered tens of thousands of online volunteers via a Google form, along with support from some opposition leaders.

“We must understand that five years ago, no one was ready to speak against Modi or the government. Times are changing,” said Dipke, who had previously worked with the Aam Aadmi party (AAP), which emerged from India’s anti-corruption movement in 2012.

Dipke said HSK is not affiliated with any real political organization. But its rise reflects a broader trend in South Asia, where young people have played a central role in anti-government movements in recent years, including uprisings in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and unrest in Nepal.

“Young people are really frustrated and the government is not acknowledging their concerns,” Dipke said.

The pressures are particularly acute in India, where young people make up more than a quarter of the population but many have limited job opportunities and face persistent unemployment. Many young voters are also angry with Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist party over issues such as increasing religious polarization, rising inequality and economic pressures.

CJP is heavily prone to self-mockery. Joke membership criteria include being unemployed, lazy, always online, and shouting unprofessionally. His manifesto uses satire to address many controversial issues in Indian politics, including opposition allegations of voter manipulation, criticism of the relationship between corporate media and the government, and the appointment of retired judges to official positions.

Some opponents, many of them Modi supporters, dismissed it as an online political ploy aligned with the opposition, citing Dipke’s past association with the AAP. They also say the surge in popularity will likely fade as quickly as it emerges, arguing that this is a digital campaign rather than a grassroots movement.

But Dipke said what starts online is unlikely to be limited to social media. “This is the movement coming to India… it will change the political discourse,” he said. “It will continue online, and if necessary, it will go to the field.”

The movement slowly began to spread offline, with some young volunteers joining the protests by dressing as cockroaches. So is the apparent pushback.

On Thursday, Dipke wrote on X that CJP’s account on the platform, which had nearly 200,000 followers, had been suspended in India; this was one of the first visible restrictions on movement. The reason was not immediately clear.

Minutes later, he announced that he had created a new account for the group and posted: “The Cockroach is back.” He added: “Did you think you could get rid of us? Hahaha.”