The “government has taken down” the Cockroach Janta Party’s website, the satirical digital organisation’s founder, Abhijeet Dipke, alleged on Saturday, claiming that “this dictatorial behaviour is opening the eyes of India's youth.”
The meme-driven political movement became an Internet sensation this week in India and surpassed the BJP’s follower count on Instagram.
“The government has taken down our iconic website - http://cockroachjantaparty.org,” Boston-based Dipke wrote on X (formerly Twitter), where he has nearly two lakh followers.
“10 Lakh cockroaches had signed up on our website as members. 6 Lakh cockroaches had signed a petition to demand the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan.
“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,” he wrote.
“But you can't get rid of us that easily. We’re working on a new home right now. Cockroaches never die.”
Earlier, Dipke had in another post detailed what he called the “crackdown” on Cockroach Janta Party.”
“Instagram page hacked. My personal Instagram hacked. Twitter account withheld. Back up account also taken down,” he had written.
Dipke also made a post warning followers against fake accounts impersonating the Cockroach Janta Party.
The CJP sprung up after Chief Justice of India Surya Kant reportedly called “some” unemployed youth cockroaches who attack the system. The CJI later clarified that he meant those who hold fake degrees and not unemployed youth in general, but the damage had been done.
As the CJP gained momentum – and followers – at breakneck speed, Dipke reported the “crackdown” through a series of hacking attempts and takedowns of social media handles and pages.
“I was on BBCWorld when Cockroach Janta Party’s account was withheld in India,” he wrote in one tweet. “By suppressing our voices, the BJP Govt is just exposing its autocracy to the world.”
In another, he said he was getting death threats.
While most see the CJP as a manifestation of Gen-X angst, the government seems to think it is a foreign-funded security threat.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the BJP’s Kerala president, described the CJP as a “classic cross-border influence operation” aimed at destabilising India and targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
Chandrasekhar said such campaigns use “bots, AI and weaponised narratives” to create the illusion of organic public sentiment, and argued that India’s rise under Modi was driving resentment among vested interests abroad.
“No cockroach, no petty opposition politician, no Modi-hating joker, no foreign vested interest can derail India’s resolve to build a Viksit Bharat,” he wrote on X.
Cockroach in Yamuna pollution protest
A man reached the Mathura municipal corporation office on Friday dressed as a cockroach, singing and dancing, to protest the pollution in the Yamuna.
Clad in a cockroach costume, social activist Deepak Sharma warned that if the issues were not addressed promptly, the condition of the river would worsen in the days to come.
Sharma said he was compelled to dress as a cockroach to open the eyes of the "incompetent" officials, who have virtually turned a blind eye to the pollution of the Yamuna and the rampant filth in the city.
A crowd gathered to watch him, with many filming with their mobile phones.
Mathura municipal officials did not comment on the incident.
