NEW DELHI, May 21: The X (formerly Twitter) account of the satirical digital outfit ‘Cockroach Janata Party’ has been withheld in India, prompting its founder Abhijeet Dipke to launch a new handle, ‘Cockroach is Back’. The move comes days after the satirical party gained significant traction on social media following remarks made by the Chief Justice of India.
Information was available with The Chenab Times that the X account was withheld on Thursday. Founder Abhijeet Dipke stated that the account’s withholding was expected due to previous hacking attempts but described it as a “self-goal by the government.” He announced the creation of the new account, ‘Cockroach Is Back’, and indicated plans to pursue the matter legally.
The ‘Cockroach Is Back’ handle rapidly garnered a substantial following, reaching 16,800 followers within approximately an hour of its launch. Previously, the ‘Cockroach Janata Party’ X account reportedly boasted 201,000 followers.
The satirical party emerged on May 15, a day after Chief Justice of India Surya Kant’s remarks about “parasites” and “cockroaches” in the legal profession. While the Chief Justice later clarified that his comments were specifically aimed at individuals entering the judiciary through “fake and bogus degrees,” the ensuing discussion sparked the creation of the ‘Cockroach Janata Party’. The platform quickly went viral, attracting support from a diverse group including politicians, activists, artists, and a broad spectrum of social media users.
Despite the X account’s inaccessibility in India, the ‘Cockroach Janata Party’ maintains an active presence on Instagram, where it has amassed approximately 14.3 million followers. Posts on the platform have drawn comparisons to the official X account of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has around 8.8 million followers on the Meta-owned platform.
Mr. Dipke questioned the action against what he termed a satirical platform, alleging that the rapid growth of the account and the movement had perhaps alarmed the government. He also reported that attempts were being made to hack the Instagram account.
Several other X accounts using similar nomenclature, such as ‘The Cockroach Youth’, ‘Cockroach News’, ‘IAmCockroach’, ‘Cockroach Party of India’, and ‘Cockroach Janata Party (Gen Z)’, remain active. These accounts continue to leverage memes and sharp political commentary to address youth concerns like unemployment, examination paper leaks, and education.
The ‘Cockroach Janata Party’ website describes itself as a “political party for the people the system forgot to count. Five demands. Zero sponsors. One large, stubborn swarm.” It features sections on its manifesto, vision, eligibility, and contact information, identifying itself as the “Voice of the Lazy & Unemployed.” The rapid rise of the movement has been viewed as a form of digital dissent by various public figures, including politicians like Mahua Moitra and Kirti Azad of the TMC, and activists such as Prashant Bhushan and Anjali Bharadwaj.
The origin of the satirical movement traces back to the Chief Justice’s May 15 remarks, where he observed, “There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment or have any place in profession. Some of them become media, some of them become social media, RTI activists and other activists and they start attacking everyone.” He later issued a clarification stating his pain over media misquotations of his oral observations.
The Chenab Times News Desk