Why millions of Indians are calling themselves ‘cockroaches’

A satirical movement voicing some of the major concerns of the youth in India has gone viral after millions embraced the “cockroach” as a symbol of political and economic frustration.

The “Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) – voice of the lazy and unemployed” was founded on 16 May by Abhijeet Dipke, a 30-year-old public relations graduate at Boston University and former social media strategist for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Within a week it amassed nearly 20.5 million followers on Instagram and 200,000 on X before their account on the site originally known as Twitter was suspended.

The Independent has reached out to Dipke for a comment.

With the social media accounts came a website complete with a manifesto, membership guidelines, and a sign-up form inviting users to join “a political party for the people the system forgot to count”.

The party’s name parodies Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in power since 2014.

The drive behind the movement is pushback for a remark from India’s chief justice Surya Kant, who said during a Supreme Court hearing on 15 May that there were “youngsters like cockroaches” who, unable to find employment or “any place in the profession”, turned to media, social media, and activism to “start attacking everyone”.

The comments, made while criticising what he described as “parasites” attacking Indian institutions, spread rapidly across Indian social media and struck a nerve among younger users.

The following day, Dipke responded with a post on X asking: “What if all cockroaches come together?” alongside a Google form inviting users to join “a new platform for all the cockroaches”.

Kant later clarified that he had been referring specifically to people entering professions using “fake and bogus degrees”, not unemployed young people broadly, who were “the pillars of a developed India”.

“Those in power think citizens are cockroaches and parasites. They should know that cockroaches breed in rotten places. That’s what India is today,” Dipke told Al Jazeera.

Unemployment among Indians aged 15 to 29 stood at 9.9 per cent in 2025, rising to 13.6 per cent in urban areas, according to the Indian government’s Periodic Labour Force Survey. The 2026 State of Working India report by Azim Premji University also found unemployment among graduates aged 15 to 25 was close to 40 per cent.

Kant’s remarks came amid nationwide anger after authorities cancelled India’s competitive medical entrance examination following a paper leak scandal. At least 2.3 million students sat for the test on 3 May. The controversy followed similar scandals elsewhere, including the cancellation of Uttar Pradesh’s police recruitment exam in 2024, affecting 4.8 million applicants, and the scrapping of the UGC-NET examination the same year over leak allegations.

“The youth of India has largely vanished from the mainstream political discourse,” Dipke told Reuters. “Nobody is talking about us. Nobody is listening to our issues or even trying to acknowledge our existence.”

The CJP’s manifesto channels that frustration into a mix of satire and direct political demands. One proposal calls for retired chief justices to be barred from receiving seats in parliament’s upper house as a “post-retirement reward”, while another proposes a 20-year ban on politicians who defect between parties.

The manifesto also calls for 50 per cent reservation for women in parliament and cabinet positions and demands that media outlets owned by the billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, whose business groups control Network18 and NDTV respectively, have their licences revoked “to make way for truly independent media”.

Membership requirements listed on the website include being “unemployed, lazy, chronically online, and able to rant professionally”.

Supporters have described the CJP as a “breath of fresh air” and “completely unafraid to ask uncomfortable questions that mainstream politicians keep dodging”.

Opposition politicians, including Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Trinamool Congress MP Kirti Azad and Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia have all publicly backed the CJP.

Critics have dismissed the movement as opposition-backed, pointing to Dipke’s previous work with AAP between 2020-2023. Dipke has denied allegations that the movement was coordinated by any political party, and told India’s The Print website that the idea emerged “completely impromptu”.

“I read the CJI’s comment – that everybody is a cockroach – and I tweeted from my personal account,” he said.

Others have questioned if the movement represents meaningful political organising or simply internet spectacle. “I have realised most internet folks have no clue how politics really works. Real-life political work is a ball buster,” wrote one critic on X. The Quint website argued that the movement remained “performance theatre” unless it connected to “organised power”.

By Thursday, the CJP’s X account was withheld in India “in response to a legal demand”. According to The Indian Express, the Intelligence Bureau had raised concerns that the account’s “inflammatory content” and growing popularity among young users could pose a “threat to the sovereignty of India” and “jeopardised” national security.

However, the CJP returned with a replacement account shortly after, and within hours, racked up more than 150,000 followers. On Wednesday, the CJP’s Instagram account overtook the BJP’s 8.8 million followers.

Dipke has stopped short of saying whether the CJP will formally enter electoral politics, cautioning against comparisons with the Gen Z-led uprisings in Bangladesh and Nepal. “Whatever we do, we will do within the rights of the constitution. We will do it in a very democratic and peaceful way,” he said.

For now, Dipke says he wants to build what he describes as an “online political party” that encourages younger Indians to become more politically active. He said he wanted the platform to “mobilise youth, encourage civic engagement, and even guide supporters toward activism through steps such as filing Right To Information applications to hold governments accountable”.

The Independent