NEW DELHI: India’s viral Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) launched a nationwide protest campaign on Thursday, with hundreds of students and young supporters gathering in the western city of Pune in the movement’s latest display of growing political influence.
The rally at Savitribai Phule Pune University came a week after the group staged its first major street protest in New Delhi, where demonstrators demanded the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged examination irregularities and recurring paper leak scandals.
Addressing supporters at the event, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said the Pune rally marked the beginning of a broader national movement aimed at amplifying youth concerns across India.
“The government cannot ignore the youth,” Dipke told reporters, announcing plans for similar demonstrations in other cities and warning that supporters would return to New Delhi later this month if the education minister did not step down.
Dipke, a political communications strategist and student at Boston University, recently returned from the United States to lead the campaign.
The movement emerged in May after remarks by Supreme Court judge Surya Kant, who reportedly compared some unemployed young people to “cockroaches,” sparked widespread criticism. Rather than rejecting the label, supporters embraced it as a symbol of resilience and frustration with the political establishment.
Since then, the movement has gained remarkable traction online, attracting more than 22 million followers on Instagram and becoming one of India’s fastest-growing youth-led political campaigns.
While initially focused on examination controversies, the CJP has broadened its agenda to include unemployment, rising living costs, education reforms and government accountability.
The movement has gained popularity through a mix of satire, self-deprecating humor and political criticism. Supporters frequently describe themselves as unemployed and chronically online, while viral videos and memes targeting corruption, unemployment and political dysfunction have drawn millions of views.
Numerous parody accounts have also adopted the cockroach as a satirical political symbol, further boosting the movement’s visibility across social media platforms.
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