The Cockroaches Have Spoken

How an insult from the Supreme Court birthed India’s strangest youth movement

India wakes up every few months to a new outrage. A statement. A slogan. A clip ripped out of context. A politician saying the quiet part aloud. Social media erupts, hashtags trend for forty-eight hours, television panels scream at each other, and the nation moves on.

But this time, something unusual happened.

The insult refused to remain an insult.

It evolved.

What began as a controversial courtroom observation by Chief Justice Surya Kant — interpreted by many as likening unemployed youth to “cockroaches” and “parasites” — has now transformed into one of the most bizarre, hilarious, politically charged, and culturally revealing online movements India has seen in years. (Reuters)

The result?

The birth of the “Cockroach Janta Party” — a satirical digital political movement that exploded almost overnight across Instagram, X, and meme culture, attracting millions of followers within days. (AP News)

At the time of writing this, the Instagram account has crossed an astonishing 16 million followers, turning what may have begun as internet satire into something far more potent: collective rage disguised as humour.

The Remark That Sparked It

During a Supreme Court hearing, comments attributed to Chief Justice Surya Kant were widely circulated online as describing unemployed youth in terms associated with “cockroaches”. The backlash was immediate and visceral. (Business Today)

Soon after the controversy exploded, the Chief Justice issued a clarification, stating that his remarks had been misquoted and that he was referring specifically to people entering professions through fake or bogus degrees — not India’s youth at large. He also expressed pride in the younger generation of the country. (Reuters)

But by then, the internet had already done what the internet does best:

It had weaponised the insult.

From Slur to Symbol

There is something deeply fascinating about marginalised or insulted groups reclaiming language meant to demean them.

Queer people reclaimed “queer.”
Dalit writers reclaimed slurs once thrown at them.
Memes themselves are often acts of reclamation.

And now, unemployed, anxious, digitally exhausted Indian youth reclaimed the cockroach.

Not merely as a joke — but as identity.

The symbolism was unexpectedly powerful.

Cockroaches survive.
Cockroaches adapt.
Cockroaches outlive systems.
Cockroaches are impossible to eradicate.

Almost instantly, “Main Bhi Cockroach” began appearing online. AI-generated posters emerged. Satirical manifestos circulated. Young Indians dressed as cockroaches in protest videos. Meme pages turned into political commentary overnight. (Maktoob)

Enter Abhijeet Dipke

The movement was initiated by Abhijeet Dipke, a 30-year-old media strategist and former political social-media worker, who launched the Cockroach Janta Party as a satirical response to the controversy. (Republic World)

Its branding was brilliant in the way only internet-native politics can be brilliant: self-aware, ironic, absurd, and emotionally accurate.

The party described itself as:

“a political front of the youth, by the youth, for the youth.”

Its tongue-in-cheek membership criteria included:

being unemployed “by force, choice, or principle”
being chronically online
being emotionally exhausted by the system
mastering the art of professional online ranting

Behind the humour lay something unmistakably real. (Republic World)

Why This Went Viral

People will dismiss the Cockroach Janta Party as meme politics.

That is precisely why they misunderstand it.

Humour is often the final language available to a generation that feels unheard.

India today has one of the youngest populations in the world, but also one struggling with unemployment, inflation, educational pressure, burnout, collapsing work-life balance, and an increasingly performative digital culture. (Reuters)

The Cockroach Janta Party did not become viral merely because it was funny.

It became viral because it converted humiliation into participation.

And participation into community.

For years, Indian youth have been told they are lazy, distracted, entitled, oversensitive, unemployed, overeducated, underqualified, politically apathetic, and perpetually online.

The Cockroach Janta Party answered:

“Yes. And?”

The Devdutt Pattanaik Connection

Interestingly, the metaphor itself had appeared earlier in cultural and intellectual commentary by Devdutt Pattanaik, who has often explored how language, symbolism, and mythological metaphors shape public imagination. In some of his online commentary, Pattanaik had also used the term “cockroaches” to describe trolls — people who attack others senselessly and anonymously online.

But when similar imagery emerged from the judiciary — especially in relation to unemployment and youth frustration — it acquired an entirely different moral and political weight.

A mythological metaphor in literature becomes symbolism.

The same metaphor from a constitutional authority becomes power speaking downward.

That difference matters.

The State Responds

As the movement continued growing, the reactions became increasingly surreal.

Reports emerged that the movement’s X account had been withheld in India. Its founder also alleged hacking attempts against the Instagram page. (The Times of India)

Naturally, this only intensified public curiosity.

Nothing accelerates internet mythology faster than attempted suppression.