New Delhi, May 21 (PTI): The X account of Cockroach Janata Party, a satirical digital outfit that came up last week and took social media by storm, was withheld in India on Thursday. Soon after, came another handle – ‘Cockroach is Back’ with the tagline ‘Cockroaches Don’t Die’.
“This (action) was expected since there were attempts to hack the account yesterday. But this is a self-goal by the government,” founder Abhijeet Dipke told PTI.
“I have now started a new account named ‘Cockroach Is Back’ on X,” Dipke added.
He also said the team would pursue the matter legally.
The number of followers of the account ‘Cockroach is Back’ continued to grow, reaching more than 91,000 late Thursday night. Around 6 pm, a few hours after the launch, the X handle had garnered more than 39,000 followers. It once again shared the demand for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, over the NEET UG 2026 paper ‘leak’.
Cockroach Janata Party, which, according to Dipke, had 201,000 followers on X when it was withheld, was born following a controversy over Chief Justice of India Surya Kant using the terms “parasites” and “cockroaches” while pulling up a lawyer for his plea seeking senior designation.
The CJI later clarified that he was misquoted and his remarks were directed specifically at individuals entering the legal profession through “fake and bogus degrees”.
The account, which came into being a day after the CJI’s remarks on May 15, quickly went viral, attracting support from politicians, activists, artists and a large number of young and not-so-young social media users.
Though the X account is inaccessible in India, it can be accessed through VPN.
The platform’s Instagram page remains active with over 18 million followers – and counting – by late Thursday night. At around 6 pm, the account had 15.6 million followers.
A post from the X account ‘Cockroach is Back’ drew comparisons with the official BJP account, which has approximately 8.8 million followers on the Meta-owned platform.
“The reason why they blocked us,” read the post, which also had an image of a cockroach munching on a lotus flower, the election symbol of the BJP.
“You thought you can get rid of us? Lol,” another post read.
The Instagram account of the Cockroach Janata Party, which quickly became CJP for many, has also surpassed the following of the Congress, which has 13.3 million followers.
Questioning the action against what he described as a satirical platform, Dipke said the account and the movement had been growing rapidly.
“The X handle and movement have been growing, getting thousands of followers every day – perhaps that is what scared the government,” Dipke alleged.
Dipke, who was earlier associated with the AAP, also posted on X that attempts were being made to hack the Instagram account.
Several other accounts using the ‘cockroach’ nomenclature remain active on X. These include ‘The Cockroach Youth’, ‘Cockroach News’, ‘IAmCockroach’, ‘Cockroach Party of India’ and ‘Cockroach Janata Party (Gen Z)’.
What began as an online satire project has soon evolved into a wider conversation about contemporary protest and the role of humour and meme culture in it.
Using memes, the CJP platform gained traction through sharp political satire and commentary. Much of its content centres on youth concerns such as unemployment, examination paper leaks and education, packaged through graphics, animation, manifestos and charter-style demands.
The rapid rise drew attention not only from meme creators and young users but also from public figures who viewed it as a form of digital dissent.
Politicians, including Trinamool Congress leaders Mahua Moitra and Kirti Azad, engaged with or expressed interest in the movement alongside activists such as Prashant Bhushan and Anjali Bharadwaj.
Several activists and politicians criticised the action against the CJP’s X handle.
“So much for haters and paid troll armies – truth and genuine followers win every time. CJP now has the largest number of Insta followers. Well done, Abhijeet Dipke,” Moitra said.
CPI(ML) Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya asked if the government believed it could “stop GenZ by blocking social media handles of CJP”.
“What if the CJP launches an unfollow campaign against the BJP and NaMo handles? X must respect internet freedom and restore the Cockroach Janta Party handle without any delay,” Bhattacharya said on X.
Activist Yogendra Yadav shared a video message, urging people to follow the CJP and unfollow government members.
“Those who cannot take a joke are themselves a joke. The ban on the Cockroach Janata Party shows that the government may look strong, but it is hollow,” he said in a video message in Hindi.
Congress leader Shahi Tharoor, meanwhile, said he was “incredibly intrigued” by the rise of the Cockroach Janta Party.
Tharoor advocated for an outlet for the youth to “express their feelings” and said withholding the account was “extremely unwise”.
“I understand the frustrations of the youth and see why they are resonating with it. This is precisely why the account being withheld on X is disastrous and deeply unwise – there should be an outlet for the youth to express their feelings, and so, let CJP’s account function instead of shutting it down! Democracies need outlets for dissent, humour, satire and even frustration,” Tharoor said.
While stating that he was “uncertain about the future of this movement”, Tharoor expressed hope that “youngsters behind it find a way to bring this energy into mainstream politics or perhaps express it through their vote to be a voice of change and in doing so, become impossible to ignore”.
“This is an opportunity that the Opposition must seize,” he said.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi called it a sad reflection of youth losing hope in most of the opposition parties.
In a post on X, she said there was a need to “rethink and reimagine the young voter”.
“That a social media-created idea of CJP has taken the GenZ imagination by storm is a sad reflection of them losing hope in most of the current opposition parties,” Chaturvedi said.
On its website, the CJP describes itself as a “political party for the people the system forgot to count. Five demands. Zero sponsors. One large, stubborn swarm”.
Complete with sections on ‘manifesto’, ‘vision’, ‘eligibility’ and ‘contact’, the website also claims that it is the “Voice of the Lazy and Unemployed”.
On May 15, CJI Surya Kant said, “There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment or have any place in the profession. Some of them become media, some of them become social media, RTI activists and other activists, and they start attacking everyone.” The next day, he said in a strongly worded clarification, “I am pained to read how a section of media has misquoted my oral observations made during the hearing of a frivolous case yesterday.” PTI AO ARI ARI
(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)
