The Cockroach and The Parasite: On India’s Newest Gen Z Political Party, The Cockroach Janta Party.
- Shreya Dharavath
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Content note: This article discusses student deaths by suicide.
There was a cockroach that appeared dead for three days in my cousin’s bathroom. It lay there on its back, belly-up, hard-shelled, and immovable. I did not want to pick it up. I avoided the entire area because it scared me even in its decay. And then, on the fourth day, it revived.
So, if the cockroach is the new political emblem of India’s underserved and frequently dismissed youth, I would say it is fitting. More than that, it is inspiring.
During a court hearing on May 15, 2026, concerning the designation of senior advocates, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant remarked, “There are already parasites of society who attack the system and you want to join hands with them? There are youngsters like cockroaches, they don’t get any employment, they don’t have any place in profession. Some of them become media, some of them become social media, some of them become [India’s Right to Information Act] activists, some of them become other activists, and they start attacking everyone… And you people file contempt petitions.”
He later clarified his statement after receiving extensive public backlash, insisting that he was referring to “those who have entered professions like the Bar with the aid of fake and bogus degrees.” But in court, Kant’s remarks referred to unemployed people, journalists, and activists, not only lawyers.
It takes a lot of nerve to turn a statement on its head and transform it into satire aimed at India’s governing Hindu-nationalist political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), founded by Abhijeet Dipke, formed just 24 hours after Kant’s remark went viral. Dipke is a 30-year-old political strategist who previously worked with the Aam Aadmi Party, which has governed Delhi and has campaigned on issues including public services, farmers’ rights, and women’s rights. His rebuttal to Kant came through a post on X: “If the system calls us cockroaches, then cockroaches we will proudly become. Resilient. Unkillable. Everywhere.” The movement attracted more than 200,000 members worldwide by May 22 and now has more than 22 million followers on Instagram.
Cockroaches can survive poison, shoes, exterminators, and floods. India’s younger population faces its own slower, more bureaucratic exterminator: a testing system that can cancel an examination to which students dedicated two years of their lives because answers were leaked through WhatsApp. The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) is one of the largest medical entrance examinations in the world. Its score determines whether applicants are eligible to attend undergraduate medical colleges and, if accepted, which ones.
Al Jazeera reported that nearly 2.3 million students took NEET on May 3, “battling it out for less than 130,000 spots in medical colleges.” Allegations of an answer leak prompted the Indian government to announce nine days later, on May 12, that the examination had been voided. Between that announcement and the June 21 retest, The Indian Express reported that at least 12 NEET aspirants across India died by suicide. Faridabad police later reported that another NEET aspirant had died by suicide.
These are people who repeatedly dedicate their hope, time, savings, and effort to their aspirations. These are people who cared immensely about their lives.
Politicians have the power, opportunity, and connections to avoid public accountability by retracting, rephrasing, or clarifying their statements to the press. What cannot be denied, however, is that when educational institutions designed to help young adults develop the qualifications they need for employment are mismanaged by those same politicians, the problem is not simply a paper leak. It is certainly not the youth. Nor is it merely the labor market or unemployment rate. It is mismanagement, and beneath that, it is governance.
One of the problems is that examination infrastructure such as India’s National Testing Agency (NTA) is severely understaffed for the number of tests it administers and applicants it evaluates. The NTA conducts more than 20 examinations annually, with NEET among the four that attract the largest applicant pools. In August 2024, the Ministry of Education, headed by Dharmendra Pradhan, said in a response to Member of Parliament Ramji Lal Suman that “the NTA operates with just 22 employees on deputation, 38 contractual staff members, and 138 outsourced workers.”
In December 2025, Hindustan Times reported that a parliamentary panel on education found that at least five of the 14 competitive examinations the NTA conducted in 2024 and 2025 encountered problems ranging from postponed tests to withdrawn questions caused by errors in final answer keys. As for whether the understaffing has been resolved, Hindustan Times reported in May 2026 that “of the 16 new posts, only three joint directors have joined so far, while the agency continues to rely on 43 contractual employees.” Dharmendra Pradhan remains Minister of Education.
Keshav Agarwal, vice president of the Coaching Federation of India, argues that the leak originated within the system. “You cannot simply conduct examinations for millions of students every year when the testing body itself has restricted manpower and infrastructure.” Responsibility ultimately rests with the ministry, but the CJP contends that Pradhan has delayed accountability for too long. There is a blatant hypocrisy in politicians comparing unemployed people to parasites while the education system that should help them move forward in their careers remains deeply flawed. Students are bearing devastating consequences.
When will it be enough?
Recently, the CJP’s trajectory has only intensified. On June 20, its members moved from their digital platform to a sustained encampment at Jantar Mantar, a longstanding protest site in Delhi. They refused to disperse until Dharmendra Pradhan resigned. An initial education manifesto unveiled at a rally in Pune called for greater transparency and accountability, along with ₹10,000 in compensation for each candidate affected by a paper leak. The movement later expanded its manifesto on its official website into “5 Demands to End India’s Exam Crisis.”
Sonam Wangchuk, an Indian engineer and climate and education activist, joined the CJP protest at Jantar Mantar and began an indefinite hunger strike. On July 18, after 20 days of fasting, Delhi police removed Wangchuk from the protest site and took him to a hospital. Police said the decision followed medical advice and a court directive, while CJP members disputed that account and described his removal as forceful. Dipke also alleged that police used force against the encampment and detained him.
A cockroach’s nervous system can experience temporary paralysis, known as thanatosis, or “playing dead,” when faced with an extermination attempt. A cockroach refuses, again and again, to die when expected to. So, sure, the youth are the cockroaches. But they are not the parasites.
For more information on the CJP’s updates, visit cockroachjantaparty.com.