India’s Viral Cockroach Janta Party Launches Nationwide Youth Protest Campaign

New Delhi: India’s viral Cockroach Janta Party launched a nationwide protest campaign on Thursday, with hundreds of students and young supporters gathering in the western city of Pune for the youth movement’s latest show of force.

The rally at Savitribai Phule Pune University followed the group’s first major street protest in New Delhi last week. He demanded the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over allegations of exam irregularities and repeated paper leaks.

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, a political communications strategist and Boston University student, addressed his supporters and said Thursday was the beginning of a broader national campaign. He announced plans for protests in other cities and said supporters would return to New Delhi later this month if the education minister does not resign.

“The government cannot ignore the youth,” Dipke, who recently returned from the United States to lead the campaign, told reporters.

The move emerged in May when remarks by Supreme Court judge Surya Kant comparing some unemployed youth to “cockroaches” triggered outrage. Supporters have adopted the term as a symbol of resilience, helping the group amass more than 22 million followers on Instagram.

The movement’s message has since expanded to include concerns about unemployment, rising costs of living and government accountability.

CJP mixes self-deprecating humor with political criticism. Videos and memes mocking unemployment, corruption and political dysfunction have attracted millions of views, as supporters jokingly refer to themselves as unemployed and chronically online. Many parody CJP accounts have also adopted the cockroach as a satirical political symbol.