Mainstream WeeklyIn Daniel Evan Weiss’s satirical novel, ‘The Roaches Have No King,’ a colony of besieged and hungry cockroaches, ignored by the humans who cohabitate their apartment, launches an elaborate campaign to reclaim the space that power had sealed off from them. The premise is absurdist fiction, but the instinct it describes is not. Perhaps the Chief Justice of India thought that the calling of the unemployed youth of the country ‘cockroaches’ by him in the open court on May 15 this year would be lost in the din of daily judicial proceedings. It sparked a movement instead.
The Chief Justice of India (CJI), Surya Kant’s statement that rippled all over the internet paving a way for a digital political party that has almost the same number of followers as the grand old party the Indian National Congress and the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party together.
CJI Kant, during a hearing said, “There are parasites in society who attack the system... they don’t get any employment and don’t have any place in the profession.” He added, “Some of them become media, some of them become social media, some of them become RTI activists, and they start attacking everyone.”
However, within the next 24 hours, the statement went viral on social media compelling the CJI to issue a clarification saying he was “misquoted” and his observation was for those who get into legal profession using fake degrees.
In the statement, the CJI said, "I am pained to read how a section of the media has misquoted my oral observations made during the hearing of a frivolous case yesterday.” He also described India’s youth as “the pillars of a developed India.”
The clarification was required; however, the damage was already done. Sensing the cruciality of the statement, Abhijeet Dipke, a 30-year-old political strategist and a former Aam Aadmi Party associate, seized the opportunity leveraging the frustration of young people over the CJI’s observation.
On May 16, Dipke wrote on X, “What if all the cockroaches come together,” hinting at his plan of initiating an online campaign that turned out to be internet sensation in the form of satirical-political party — the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), withdrawing the inspiration from the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party.
Within days, the CJP amassed over 22 million followers on Instagram, as of May 24 — more than the Bharatiya Janata Party’s 9.3 million followers on the same platform, and INC’s 13.5 million as.
The Metaphorical Cockroaches
Before understanding the observations of the CJI, one must also notice the language used by the head of the one of highest institutions in India. The CJI is no political party, his comments foment the youth against the government and judicial system. In the age where CJIs are joining political parties, such language will disconnect the youth from the government and governance, and will leave the judges with a biased and apathetic impression.
The word cockroach and parasite have historical infamy. During the onset of 90s, Radio Rwanda villainized Tutsi people by calling them inyenzi (cockroach). In nazi Germany, Jews were also labelled as parasites and rats by the Hitler administration. This vermination of communities was published in pamphlets and schoolbooks as well as they were heralded in political speeches. The Radio Rwanda was later convicted for enabling genocide on Tutsi people while Nazi German officials were convicted for organizing Holocaust by using this exact language.
The ‘cockroach’ and ‘parasite’ metaphors by the CJI, whether intentional or not, were later on attributed to Indian youth on social media. A narrative was framed that the unemployment status is not a policy failure of the government but a character that needs to be condemned. This imputation of vermin with common citizen also blurs the line between ‘you are wrong’ and ‘you do not belong.’
The Party That Is Not Political
The CJP succeeded in its campaign because it connected with the young generation. It chose the medium where the genZ is— social media. The party used the contentious observation by the CJI as its career, which was already a trending news all across the social media. It did not go behind the conventional political branding, hitting the streets and organizing a launch rally, but a simple trending news that offended many on social media. Dipke turned an insult to an identity. Many started making reels showing AI generated talking about socio-political problem. The youth greeted it well, sharing posts by CJP and its messages.
Dipke smartly took the name from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party itself by naming the satirical party Cockroach Janta Party. It was a smart of strategical judo: leveraging the popularity of the establishment in a form of internet content.
The CJP also released a google form asking people to become member by filling it. The eligibility criteria it has set are: unemployed, lazy, chronically online, and ability to rant professionally. All these traits are used facetiously by the GenZ loud on their social media profiles.
The CJP has also released five-point resolutions that align with the opposition demand. CJP promises to ban post-retirement Rajya Sabha seats for Chief Justices, a 50 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and 50% reservation in the cabinet as well, provision to arrest the chief election officer if a legit vote is deleted, license cancellation of media owned by Adani-Ambani, and a 20-year prohibition for party defectors. These demands are in line with current political discourse.
However, it is yet to be seen whether the CJP will take a legal conformity from the ECI or will it remain a social media buzz.
The Ban That Confirmed the Fear
Power holder did not fail to notice the success of the CJP. Such momentum might create panic for any government in the age of social media revolt where two neighboring countries of India were uprooted by the GenZ with the coordinated efforts using the digital platforms. The acceptability of the CJP among the youth has also been confirmed within a few days of its inception with its X account (@CJP_2029) being withheld in India.
The account states, “@CJP_2029 has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand." In reaction to the ban, Dipke tweeted: “Own goal”. Apart from the ban, Dipke also claimed that there were several attempts to hack CJP’s Instagram account prior to the legal withholding of its X account. He called on the fans to defy the clampdown. ‘We didn’t do anything wrong. We demanded the resignation of the minister and accountability in the death of the student. This is what kind of democracy is this?” he said in a statement. Later on, CJP’s official website — cockroachjantaparty.org, has been taken down by the government.
By refusing to publish a satire which was found guilty of no defamation, incitement or any other particular legal offense, they did exactly what the suppression of satire has historically done: they swelled the movement. The screenshot of the withheld account was a de facto recruitment poster every time it was shared.
This is not a new lesson. In September 2025, protests broke out in Nepal following the government’s ban on several social media platforms, and those protests led to the resignation . Meme language emerged as a tool of mass mobilization – satirical phrases from the internet spilled over onto the walls of Dhaka. Digital networks also enabled fast mobilisation against entrenched elites in Sri Lanka in 2022. It’s a consistent pattern: when states crack down on digital satire, they don’t silence dissent, they amplify it.
India is not Bangladesh or Nepal. Its political landscape is bigger and more fragmented and its institutions are more stormproof in the face of single-issue politics. But the mechanism at play is the same: institutional contempt sparking digital solidarity, then suppression sparking further radicalisation.
The CJP was not just limited to Indian social media. It also making buzz on the international level. CNN reported on this movement and described it as young Indians using viral satire as a protest against high unemployment and political dissatisfaction. CNN noted that South Asia has seen a number of similar youth-led movements against corruption and inequality. The story has also been reported by Al Jazeera and CBS News, giving it international visibility that the government’s crackdown likely hastened, not stifled.
How GenZ is Actually Responding
The CJP must be read not as a political party but as a diagnostic. It tells us something precise about a generation’s relationship with Indian institutions.
India’s youth unemployment rate remains stubbornly high. Young Indians are better educated than any previous generation, more connected to the world, and more aware of the distance between what their country promises them and what it delivers. They are also, as the Chief Justice’s remark inadvertently demonstrated, often spoken about by powerful institutions rather than spoken with.
The CJP did not emerge despite this frustration — it emerged from it. Reports even indicated that CJP supporters were considering fielding a candidate in the upcoming Bankipur Assembly constituency by-election in Bihar — a sign that however satirical the origin, the appetite for something beyond the existing political options is real and growing.
Whether the CJP survives the news cycle is the wrong question. The right question is what it reveals about the soil in which it grew so quickly. A judge reached for a word that communicated contempt. A generation reached back — not with rage alone, but with something more unsettling to those in power: wit, organisation, and the refusal to be embarrassed by the insult.
When institutions call people cockroaches, they should not be surprised when the cockroaches learn to vote.
(Author: Kaleem Ullah Fasihi, Research Scholar, Department of Mass Communication, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, (UP), 202002 | Email: klmfasihi123[at]gmail.com)