The official website of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has been shut down in the latest crackdown on youth and the Gen Z-led online movement after the party’s official X handle was blocked and its backup Instagram account deleted, party founder Abhijit Debke said on Saturday. He also claimed that his personal Instagram account and the party’s Instagram account had been “hacked”.
The platform came to light last week after a row over remarks linked to Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant, during a court hearing on granting “senior” status to lawyers, referring to “young people” as “cockroaches” and “parasites”. Later, the CJI said his remarks had been misquoted and that they were targeting people entering the legal field with “fake and fictitious degrees”.
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What started as a satirical online campaign later became a broader discussion of digital dissent and growing frustration among young people. Through memes and political commentary, the platform has raised issues such as unemployment, leaked exam papers and education.
Now, the official website of the CJP has been removed
Dibek said on Saturday that the party’s “popular website”, Cockroachjantaparty.org, had been shut down as part of the latest action against the movement.
The founder said that 10,000 cockroaches have registered as members through the website, while 6,000 cockroaches have signed a petition demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged failures in the education system, particularly over the NEET-UG 2026 “paper leak” controversy.
He wrote in a post on the
As of Saturday afternoon, CJP had surpassed 22 million followers on Instagram. This puts him well ahead of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which has about 9.2 million followers on the Meta-owned platform, and the main opposition Congress Party, which has about 13.4 million followers.
What sparked the CJP movement?
The party came into being after controversy erupted over CJI Surya Kant’s use of the terms “parasites” and “cockroaches” while reprimanding a lawyer for seeking a senior post.
“There are young people who are like cockroaches, who do not get any job or do not have any place in the profession. Some of them become media persons, others become social media, RTI activists and other activists and start attacking everyone,” the CJI said.
The CJI later said he had been misquoted and clarified that the statements were only aimed at people entering the legal profession using “fake and fictitious degrees”.
The Cockroach Janta Party was formed a day after the CJI’s remarks on May 15. It quickly went viral and attracted support from politicians, activists, artists and a large number of social media users across age groups.
Political leaders like Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders Mahua Moitra and Kirti Azad, along with Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, have either interacted with the movement or shown interest in it. Activists, including Prashant Bhushan and Anjali Bharadwaj, also participated.
The decision to ban the CJP’s
