India’s newly-launched ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ beats Modi’s BJP in popularity with 14.5 million Instagram followers

A satirical youth movement born out of a controversial remark by the India’s chief justice has crossed 14.5 million Instagram followers in under five days, overtaking the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in popularity on the social media platform.

The Cockroach Janta Party (@cockroachjantaparty) surpassed the BJP’s official account (@bjp4india), which currently stands at around 8.8 million followers.

The movement traces its origins to remarks made by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on May 15 during a court hearing, referring to certain young people entering professions through fake degrees as being “like cockroaches” and “parasites”.

The remarks triggered widespread outrage among younger audiences online and gave birth to the CJP campaign on May 16.

“I think the remarks were more triggering because they came from the Chief Justice of India, who is the custodian of the Constitution, which grants us freedom of expression. Someone who is there to safeguard our freedom of expression is comparing us to cockroaches and parasites just for putting forward our opinions. That was the more hurtful part,” CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said on his X account.

The chief justice’s office subsequently issued a clarification, saying he had been “misquoted by a section of media” and that his remarks targeted those who entered professions through fake degrees, not the youth at large.

The clarification, however, did little to slow the movement’s momentum online.

Despite having only 56 posts, the CJP overtook the BJP’s account, which has published more than 18,000 posts over the years. Within 78 hours of launch, the account crossed 3 million followers before surging past 14.5 million in under five days.

Dipke has been clear that the CJP does not intend to become a conventional political platform.

“Gen Z wouldn’t like it if current politicians joined the CJP,” he said. On whether the movement is merely a trend, he pointed to registrations. “If it were just a trend, more than two lakh people would not have registered on the website,” he added.