A five-day-old group that channels Gen Z concerns has gone viral in India, overtaking Instagram followers of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, discussing issues like politics, inflation and unemployment — with a touch of humour.
The Cockroach Janta Party has amassed nearly 15 million followers on Instagram in less than a week, compared with fewer than 9 million for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP, which says it is the world’s largest political party.The CJP, whose logo is an outline of a cockroach on a mobile phone, calls itself the “Voice of the Lazy and Unemployed”.The group’s 30-year-old founder, Abhijeet Dipke, told Reuters the CJP was so named because of comments by Chief Justice Surya Kant last week comparing some unemployed youth to cockroaches.
Kant later said he did not mean to criticise young people but was referring to those with “fake and bogus degrees” who were “like parasites”.
“This is a movement to change the political discourse of India,” Dipke said from Boston, where he has been based for the last two years. “The youth of India has largely vanished from the mainstream political discourse. Nobody is talking about us. Nobody is listening to our issues or even trying to acknowledge our existence.”vement, it has the potential to change the politics of India,” he said.
“And whatever we do, we will do within the rights of the constitution. We will do it in a very democratic and peaceful way. It won’t be something like we saw in Nepal or Bangladesh.”
Dipke said more than 400,000 people had signed up to become CJP members through a Google form, with over 70% aged between 19 and 25. The CJP says it has four standards for members — they have to be unemployed, lazy, chronically online and able to rant professionally.
“I really like the Cockroach Janta Party because in this country no one listens to the voice of the youth and there are not enough jobs for young people,” said Siddharth Kanaujia, a 26-year-old from the northern city of Lucknow who has signed up to become a CJP member.
“But the party talks in the interest of the youth and raises the right issues The cockroach reflects resilience, coming back strongly after every challenge.”
