A Country Full Of Cockroaches!

“There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don't get any employment and don't find any place in no profession… like parasites they are attacking!” Chief Justice India, Surya Kant (Twitter).

The world is reactionary, unpredictable and in anticipation of many things. Within 48 hours, a social media page appeared as a response to the above declaration. The new entity was aptly called the CJP, the “Cockroach” Janta Party. The ruling regime in India is called the BJP (Bharatiya Janta Party). As a vanguard or just a “common man” Abhijeet Dipke, a 20-something Boston University graduate stepped up to address Chief Justice Surya Kant, backed by a volatile online mass. The deluge of images, memes, videos and slogans swiftly converged into a “digital swarm”. Hashtags, Tweets and A.I. generated videos depicting common Indians united as Cockroaches. Dipke lunged forward at the situation, well on its way to become a blowback in India across cities, gender and class, like wind and wildfire.

What followed was a cascade of virulent frustration and collective anger, spilling from the virtual realm into reality. No media pundit nor politician could foresee, a mutiny that was triggered by a potentially offensive or unpleasant expression like “Cockroaches”. Within weeks, the Supreme Court insult had triggered a spectacular mobilization, in New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and wherever roams “India’s Burned-Out Youth”. Distributed ruptures that add up, to tens of millions of young people demanding a range of immediate reforms — including resignation, boycott and many direct insults aimed at the highest figures of power, institutions and their corresponding rot.

The following story presents four snapshots, about India in a state of precipitous chaos, collapsing institutions and the emergence of leaderless “swarm” politics viz-a-viz citizen activism.

⚫ Young Indians were compared to “Cockroaches” and “Parasites” and so it happens that almost 63% of India’s population is made of people under the age of 35. To brand such a mass, as “Cockroaches” is totally counter-productive, especially when it comes from the highest bench of justice, albeit made of old Brahman stooges appointed by the state. We are talking about no less than 540 million people (median age 30 years). The material reality (and shared opinions) of such a mass is staggering, or a quantum entanglement of hopelessness, betrayal and system failure. Rate of unemployment in India doubled during the last 15 years (Our-World-In-Data)

India is no stranger to corruption as a phenomenon, that exists at every possible turn, path and opportunity within the existing establishment. Education and higher knowledge is no exception to widespread corruption, leaks, botched results and a range of practices that ensure an unfair system at work. “Private or public, the examination system can be broken into by those who have the money… the rest are up for a scam.” (Subhojit Ghosal, graduate student from Kolkata). Like Subhojit, there hundreds of thousands of aspiring middle-class students in West Bengal, who are aware of “paper leaks” and a system that is literally “married to corruption and stagnation”. Worse, they know from recent history, how the scams unfold. The impact upon millions of students and job seekers, who believe that they are participating in a fair system of evaluation. Worse, time and again exam results have triggered certain aspiring students to commit suicide. Most striking is the case with medical college entrance exams, where students face retakes, after it was made clear that test papers had been leaked. See the mass shutdown of thousands of elementary schools across West Bengal, as one example of what they call an “education crisis”. Data from past 15 years indicates well over 50 such state and national level scams. We must remember Narendra Modi’s utterly no-brain mantra “Make In India”. And what is made is widespread corruption.

Good news that Education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, has resigned after a week of mass protests in several Indian cities, handing a major victory to the new “Cockroach movement”. Swarm politics and the unprecedented challenge to Modi’s regime, that is on fire on multiple ends, of a very vicious project orchestrated by the corrupt and those at the top of India’s caste pyramid. “They have insulted me and my mother”. No less hilarious or hideous is Modi’s crocodile tears on Instagram. Beyond a point, mass anger and frustration is done with objectivity, formal language and civil society. Fact that, hundreds of thousands of young boys and girls called Narendra Modi a “madarchod” (m*th*rf*cker in Hindi) online and on the streets, is an apt telling of collective sentiments and real courage. What no Bollywood movie or Netflix series could do, the Gen-Z sentiment has achieved online and on the streets!

⚫ The system delivers the verdict using violent crackdown, harder punishment or moral smoke-screens. Common people, young or old, know very well what the state means, in terms of “Cockroaches and Parasites”. Crackdown on corruption is a hoax when the corrupt are trying to stamp-out the Cockroaches. Now that half the nation’s population has turned “anti-National” the infrastructure is stepping up to silence dissidents, activists, opposition leaders and citizen journalists. Predictable is the collective response of the state, as the upper house of the Indian parliament quickly passed a new bill. To “double the maximum prison sentence for those involved in paper leaks to 10 years and raise the maximum fine to more than INR 10 Million” (Al Jazeera). A parliamentary bill is nothing for hundreds of millions of young people, who have no real opportunity. The “disconnect” has crossed the tipping point, according to writer and political analyst Valay Singh.

“The widespread support for the Cockroach Janata Party reveals a huge disconnect between the government, its ideology and the vast population of youth who were born in the last three decades or so. On the other hand, it is also a failure of the state to create enough (worthy opportunities ) for the educated youth. The Cockroach Janata Party claims to be apolitical. However, the issues they have raised are political in that they concern how the government views education, administers the system of examination to institutions of learning and especially how the government views India’s youth. We must remember that this was triggered by an insensitive offensive remark, by the senior-most judge in India’s Supreme Court who labelled certain petitioners as cockroaches and parasites. Valay insists that such a rupture, is a genuine spark that has rapidly transformed into a movement, that is “finding new solidarity across class, gender, in towns, cities, as on the streets and online.”

⚫ The index of corruption in India has no limits and consequently the blowback is tremendous, especially when it happens inside the most anticipated project of Hindu pride and reformation. Well ahead of the Cockroach outbreak, Narendra Modi’s pet project, the Ram Temple In Ayodhya was already “mired in corruption and embezzlement” (The Diplomat, 2025). Prime Minister Modi along with hundreds of priests, dozens of Bollywood stars, sports icons, select foreigners and hundreds of affluent donors inaugurated the gigantic Ram Mandir — the consecration ceremony (June 2023). The hatched mantra of the day was “Better future’: India’s Ayodhya sees business boom with Ram temple launch”. What “business” would actually “boom” was going to be a total contradiction.

The Ram Mandir has been a site of a tremendous bluff, especially for hundreds of thousands of pilgrims that make it to the holy spot every month. The unraveling of theft, construction scam, embezzlement, banking fraud and unaccounted for wealth, goes right up to the highest ranks of BJP, State Bank Of India as well as the temple management. A scam worth billions of dollars. Since its inauguration, the Ram Temple has been among the top religious sites in India attracting millions of Hindu devotees every year. And since its inauguration, fraud and embezzlement ensued, all thanks to the same “Hindu devotees” and the “chosen ones to protect Lord Ram’s wealth”.

Since 2023, the Ram Mandir’s management had been converted into an “autonomous trust” and most of the appointed managers and staff were “screened and selected by the BJP”. Consequently the trust and the chosen individuals remained outside the reach of public inquiry and police investigation. According to vlogger Nitish Rajput “from the official budget for the construction of the Ram Mandir, the entire commission (40%) itself was divided amongst the top echelon, made of BJP leaders, architects, material suppliers, construction companies, temple admins etc… and worse they began the systematic looting of donations, made by the poorest devotees”. Ram Janmabhoomi J.T. Trust, leads us back to Chief Justice Surya Kant’s comment “like parasites”. As to who the real parasites are, that rob and pilfer the resources, the contributions and donations of the poorest of Indians, or call them absolutely betrayed Hindus.

Donations worth hundreds of millions of INR had already gone missing by 2025. Donations made by poor farmers, housewives, landless laborers, well wishers and a multitude of working class people. “People who traveled for days, standing in line for hours, to enter the holy site, pray and make a donation, trusting that their meager contribution would reach Lord Ram” (Nitish Rajput). A mega-scam made of systems, of corruption that bypassed audit teams, surveillance technology, banks and involved officials, is truly telling. How a temple became the site of tentacular fraud and corruption is a deep dive into “financial irregularities worth billions of dollars” (The Guardian). The wholesale transfer of wealth, from the poor to the rich, in the name of God and religious reformation is what makes the Ram Mandir project a true tragedy.

February this year, the matter escalated even further, when independent media revealed that temple staff and security were in cohorts, wiping out donations in the form of cash, valuable jewellery, gold, silver, etc. All this was going on under CCTV surveillance. The Ram Mandir management had invested in hundreds of vehicles, trucks and buses, several hotels, restaurants, cows and peripheral real estate around the temple. The trust’s longstanding general secretary, Champat Rai along with Tinnu Rai and Gopal Rao eventually stepped down, with whistles blowing on several ends, accusing the inner-circle of the management, for embezzlement and “gross negligence in governance”. An FIR was launched by Prosecution Officer K.C. Verma (July 2026) naming just eight people, accused for theft of cash and jewellery worth approximately INR 80 million. “The paper trail has not been completely traced, that goes back to the high offices of the BJP and Yogi Aditya Nath, Chief Minister of U.P. But, that is just a matter of time and real justice…” (Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav). The official story goes that Ram Mandir Management “received donations, including 25 kg gold and silver ornaments, worth around INR 30 Crore in one month” trust officials (February 2026).

Thousands of Hindus had contributed to the making of the temple with not just cash but “Ram Bricks”. Exceptional or well-to-do Hindus contributed bricks made of gold and silver. Each brick, would become part of a great bastion of Hindu pride and glory. The betrayal of such hyper-nationalism (Hindutva) is as telling. Take the example of Far-Right activist Santosh Dubey, who contributed in cash and kind during the construction of the Ram Mandir. The blowback of such faith, in terms of people like Santosh Dubey is part hilarious and part tragic. “This corruption causes me deep anguish, a pain that words cannot express,” Dubey told Al Jazeera, speaking from Ayodhya. “All I can say is that nothing less than the death penalty would suffice for all of them”.

The mass betrayal that is felt, also points to the Hindu catchphrase of “Karma”. Fact that the Ram Mandir came about after the destruction of the 16th century mosque called Babri Masjid in December 2010. Months earlier, the Allahabad High Court had upheld the claim that the “mosque was built on the spot of Rama’s birthplace”. Albeit the mosque was attacked and destroyed over a few days. 6th December 1992, thousands of Hindu activists, mostly belonging to the Vishva Hindu Parishad demolished the mosque, triggering riots all over the Indian subcontinent — in not just India but also Bangladesh and Pakistan, resulting in the death of around 4000 people. City Of Faith, City Of Discord by Valay Singh, is a deep dive that unpacks the complex layers of Ayodhya, as “a place of reverence for many faiths for millennia, but a place of violence, bloodshed and ill-will.” In hindsight, the destruction of the Babri Masjid and the making of the Ram Mandir, appear like an opening chapter of a quantum entanglement. Made of Hindu reformation, sectarian violence, corruption, betrayal, fraud, civil dissent and a violent incumbent state.

“There was a scam in it, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not ready to say a word about it”. (July 2026, The Indian Express). Modi and Co. have totally compromised on India’s secular and democratic constitutional ethics. When the Gen-Z is heard screaming “Modi Is A Scam” or “Neem ka patta kadwa hai, Modi sala bhadwa hai” (The neem leaf is bitter, Modi is a pimp) is objective, humorous and merits solidarity and compassion.

⚫ Abhijeet Dipke drafted an anti-corruption manifesto for the “party” that he said “really struck a chord” among frustrated young Indians. Who stood up as citizens and as Cockroaches. In the first 24 hours, about 50,000 people signed up, growing to more than two million a week later. The foot-fall on the website went into hyper-drive as much as Cockroach Janta Party’s Instagram account ballooned, to more than 22 million by mid June this year. The online trajectory of such a phenomenon is eventually lost in the game of numbers, yet the master’s program in Public Relations helped Dipke understand how spontaneity has to be followed by a strategy. To wield actual results aimed at the current regime, including the eye of public scorn, Prime Minister Modi. While the storm picked up pace, in a moment of frustration perhaps, Dipkey posted on X: “What if all cockroaches come together?”

In his own words, Abhijeet Dipke credits “the course and professors, always stressed the importance of having a clear vision and mission statement, and how a campaign must be timely and relevant for it to be effective”. Despite threats to himself and his family, Dipke decided to ​return to India, for the time being. To his country where hundreds of thousands of supporters and activists were already organizing and protesting — the face of what “is arguably India’s biggest street protest” (reuters.com) against Modi’s government since he took office in 2014. “Breaking Now! The Cockroaches are coming” (Republic TV).

Thousands of young Indians gathered on the streets of Delhi, clustered around Jantar Mantar, carrying placards demanding accountability, transparency and justice. Also carrying cartoons, puppets, artwork, costumes, slogans and abuses in big letters. Such a roaring swarm can be understood as a coming together of many things. Several metro stations were closed, major roads leading to the center blocked off by police. The “Cockroach Web” going into a frenzy of uploads, showing police brutality, chants of solidarity, hunger strikes, spontaneous songs, speeches and resolutions. The establishment trembled and recoiled, in the wake of such an event.

The collective rage, or what was fundamentally smashed as a belief, was that education is the surest path to opportunity. That sentiment was clear, right from the onset of the “Cockroach Revolution”. A very wide gap is already in place, between the common citizens including the Gen-Z and the current rulers of India. And its not just about written rules and laws, their enforcement in practice, or the slow dissolution of mainstream media, journalism, state transparency and that “secular sovereign society”. In reality, the almighty state is not accountable for anything important. Modi’s regime mirrors many of the abhorrent techniques, as practiced in Washington by Donald Trump & Co, that include affirmations, evasion, denial, controversy and blatant lies.

That lack of accountability and of trust in terms of the establishment, is felt by millions of Indians — building disenchantment across class, age, profession and ethnicity. “I’ve been a part of protests and political movements specific to India, yet the cause of one protest should not be compared with the other… however the CJP lead protests felt like a unique experience. On ground, it left each participant with a feeling of accomplishment. Mutual feelings of support, momentum and scale grew rapidly, despite the insecure and cruel attempts to silence the protests and censor youth sentiments. Orchestrated by our government and its favorite pet lapdog, the mainstream media.” (Subir Singh, a graphic designer born and based in New Delhi). Subir insists that “frustrated by the lack of transparency, answers and accountability on any major or minor decision taken by the govt” is made worse in reality when things like the “economy and Human Rights are in a tailspin, ever new scams that unravel and religious extremism at an all time high.”

The surveillance state, mainstream media, covert cells that spread misinformation, fake news, smear campaigns, are unable to subvert swarm politics and distributed online dissent. The type of dissent and mockery by Gen-Z Indians, that shocked as well as forced many to actually wake up! To confront such a phenomena, the state is simply inept, regardless of its totalitarian grip over media and the range of appointed managers, judges, administrators, state actors, cult-figures, the business class and political leaders. The situation becomes clear, as to what the given regime and the Supreme Court have to uphold. Totalitarian power that is. Hence, “the Supreme Court today has issued notice in a Public Interest Litigation raising concerns over what it describes as the commercial exploitation and algorithmic distortion of judicial proceedings in the age of viral social media culture” (lawbeat.in, top-stories). Instead of doing their job, their commitment to the rule of law that should be grounded in the Constitution, the high priests of justice are crying that “courtroom exchanges are being converted into digitally marketable content, political symbolism, sensational news and viral commodities” (Justice S.V.N Bhatti).

Seems Justice Bhatti has forgotten that India is supposed to be a “Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic” and that millions of Cockroaches cannot be contained or subverted, to serve an establishment that was destined to become totalitarian. Diffusing the young and the disenfranchised, has become the number one task of Modi’s regime. The hoax unravels as “hope that hard work will be rewarded fairly.” One cannot beat people into submission, especially when they are “building an ecosystem where laziness is a right, not a crime. Where being unemployed doesn’t strip you of your dignity.” (Maharashtra Cockroach Janta Party).

Dr. Piya Srinivasan (writer, editor, reviewer and PhD) caps the matter of “building disenchantment” and reaching a “Critical Mass” that are coeval. As collective awareness versus all the ruptures, crackdown and corruption over time.

“The formation of CJP was a symptom of a political moment constitutive of a slowly building disenchantment, collective anger with fast, shrinking democratic spaces, corruption, and arrogant incompetence but most importantly, channeled via mobilizing collective outrage and outreach via memes, social media and puns.

Memes as the new language of protest, humor and kindness as the underbelly of rage. In the CJP protests we saw the potential for the forming of a Critical Mass, an outpouring of support completely transcending class, gender, age, and the predictable response: lathis, shelling, tear gassing, media blackout and virtual harassment.

To become a chain reaction requires not just physical presence but continued political awareness buttressed by what you and I discussed as mutual aid, as a form of solidarity. The events I saw flower during the Jantar Mantar protests. By its brutal crackdown on protestors, a mainstream silencing of the Ken-Betwa protests in Madhya Pradesh, the horrors of Manipur, demands against acquiring agricultural land for building a luxury hotel in Assam’s Kaziranga, protests against NEET leaks in at least seven other states the same day… The powers that be are attempting to defuse this critical mass. But it’s ignited hope, given us reason to wake up and feel briefly alive and happy again”

The current establishment in India, is definitely weakened by prolonged public distress, the rot within the biggest institutions and economic meltdown. Almost like an end in itself. The rage and frustration felt by so many young people, may lead to solutions or perhaps would be eclipsed by “contest for political advantage”. The Cockroaches know very well that “for too long, the system has valued people solely on their productivity and how much wealth they can generate for someone else”. (CJP insight). Indeed, and what else did the top managers of the Hindu caste pyramid learn, from the erstwhile colonizers of India. Was the British idea of a state that influenced the not-so-great founders of India. To build a state that always viewed common people as bugs and insects, squashed inside grids, predestined for productivity, to serve capitalism, corruption and maximum possible extraction. The crisis is multi-dimensional, and unemployment in India is the highest in its history. The wealth gap between the poorest and the rich, worse than it was during “the days of the British Raj”. Absolutely shocking when thousands of engineers drive autos and taxis for a living.

A Country Full Of Cockroaches! A country that I was born in. More like a land of thousand mutinies and the pending emancipation of a vast majority of Indians. Cockroaches in reality are very resilient and “can regenerate severed limbs without much fuss”. The euphemism of Cockroaches and their elaborate behavioral rituals and social skills and the ability of common people to organize, resist and regenerate on several fronts is simply amazing — an outcome that is natural. For dozens of reasons, personal and shared, I show full solidarity to the “Cockroaches Of India” and the CJP. Proud of the Gen-Z that can openly say “You have nothing to lose. The other parties already took everything.”

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