The origin story begins, as so many Internet revolutions do, with a re mark that was almost cer tainly not meant to travel this far. On May 15, reports cir culated that Chief Justice Surya Kant, during a court hearing, had compared un employed youth to cock roaches — observing that some of them become jour nalists, RTI activists or so cial media users and ‘start attacking everyone’. The In ternet, home to a significant population of unemployed youth who are journalists, RTI activists and social me dia users, responded with the kind of coordinated out rage that only the Internet can produce before lunch. The Chief Justice moved quickly to clarify. His re marks, he said, had been taken out of context — he was referring specifically to people entering professions on fake or bogus degrees, and reports suggesting he had called unemployed youth cockroaches were ‘to tally baseless’. A reasonable explanation, delivered, un fortunately, to an audience that had already incorpo rated the insult into a party name and was busy drafting a manifesto. A party is born Former AAP social me dia worker Abhijeet Dipke seized the moment with im pressive speed. Within days, the Cockroach Janta Party — the CJP — was live, loud and accumulating followers at a rate that would quietly unsettle any number of es tablished political outfits. The party describes itself as ‘secular, socialist, demo cratic, lazy’, which is either a philosophical position or an unusually honest party bio, possibly both. Membership criteria are stated with a candour rare in Indian politics: appli cants must be ‘unemployed, lazy, chronically online’, and possess the ‘ability to rant professionally’. Given that professional ranting is cur rently a growth industry across the political spec trum, the party is unlikely to face a recruitment crisis. The CJP’s transition from Internet curiosity to genu ine cultural moment arrived when actual elected repre sentatives began expressing interest in joining. Trinamool Congress MP Kirti Azad — cricketer, par liamentarian, 1983 World Cup winner — knocked on the virtual door first, ask ing on X about eligibility criteria. The party, displaying the kind of quick-witted communications instinct that most political outfits spend considerable money trying to purchase, responded that “winning the 1983 World Cup is a good enough qualification.” A warm wel come, efficiently delivered. Fellow TMC MP Mahua Moitra followed, reposting a party message and de claring herself a “card-carrying member of the Anti-National Party.” The CJP re ceived her with the announcement that she was “the fighter democracy needs” — a line that functions simultaneously as a compliment and as a quietly pointed observation about the state of things. The CJP’s five-point manifesto is where the joke starts to get serious. The party wants a ban on post-retirement Rajya Sabha seats for Chief Justices — a demand aimed squarely at a practice long criticised as a quiet reward for judi cial accommodation. It wants 50 per cent reservation for women in Parliament without increasing the total number of seats, which is another way of saying that a large number of current (predominantly male) occupants would need to find alternative employment. The party does not appear to regard this as a downside. A 20-year election ban on any MLA or MP who defects from one party to an other rounds out the political reform agenda — a proposal so straightforwardly sensible that its complete absence from every real party platform requires its own investigation. For its core student constituency, still raw from a series of examination scan dals, the CJP demands that CBSE scrap rechecking fees, branding them “blatant corruption,” and has firmly backed students caught up in the NEET controversy. These are not punchlines. They are the live grievances of a generation that has watched opportunity shrink and accountability evaporate, now delivered with enough wit to be shareable. The party has announced a virtual Gen-Z convention — an online space for young people to organise, discuss and campaign. Whether it ever files papers with the Election Commission, fields candidates, or grows beyond its current life as a very successful piece of political performance art remains an open question. The cockroach, as any biologist will confirm, is among the most resilient crea tures on the planet. It has outlasted dinosaurs, adapted to every environment, and survived conditions that would finish off almost anything else.
‘COCKROACH JANTA PARTY’: Taps into Gen-Z angst, anger
