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Now, Cockroach Janta Party website taken down; founder slams ‘dictatorial behaviour’
What started as an online satire campaign later became a broader discussion of digital dissent and growing frustration among young people.
The official website of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has been taken down in the recent crackdown against the youth and Gen Z-led online movement after the party’s official X handle was withheld, and its backup Instagram account was taken down, its founder Abhijeet Dipke said on Saturday. He also claimed that both his personal Instagram account and the party’s Instagram account had been “hacked”.
The platform surfaced last week after a row over remarks linked to Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant during a court hearing on granting "senior" status to lawyers, referring to “youngsters” as “cockroaches” and “parasites”. Later, the CJI said his remarks had been misquoted and that they were aimed at people entering the legal field with "fake and bogus degrees".
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What started as an online satire campaign later became a broader discussion of digital dissent and growing frustration among young people. Through memes and political commentary, the platform has raised issues such as unemployment, examination paper leaks and education.
Now, CJP’s official website taken down
On Saturday, Dipke said the party’s “iconic website”, cockroachjantaparty.org, had been taken down as part of the latest action against the movement.
The founder said 10 lakh cockroaches had registered as members through the website, while 6 lakh cockroaches had signed a petition seeking the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged failures in the education system, particularly due to the NEET-UG 2026 'paper leak' controversy.
“Why is the government so scared of cockroaches? But this dictatorial behaviour is opening the eyes of India's youth. Our only crime is we were demanding a better future for ourselves. But you can't get rid of us that easily. We’re working on a new home right now. Cockroaches never die,” he wrote in a post on X.
As of Saturday afternoon, CJP crossed 22 million followers on Instagram. This put it well ahead of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has around 9.2 million followers on the Meta-owned platform, and the main opposition Congress party, which has around 13.4 million followers.
What sparked the CJP movement?
The party appeared after controversy broke out over CJI Surya Kant using the terms "parasites" and "cockroaches" while reprimanding a lawyer over his plea seeking senior designation.
“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,” the CJI said.
The CJI later said he had been misquoted and clarified that the remarks were aimed only at people entering the legal profession using "fake and bogus degrees".
The Cockroach Janta Party was formed a day after the CJI's remarks on May 15. It rapidly went viral and drew support from politicians, activists, artists and a large number of social media users across age groups.
Political leaders such as Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders Mahua Moitra and Kirti Azad, along with Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, have either interacted with or shown interest in the movement. Activists, including Prashant Bhushan and Anjali Bharadwaj, have also engaged with it.
The decision to block the CJP's X account also faced criticism from the digital rights group Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), which called it a "blatant misuse of state power" and an "attempt to curb free speech".
