Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday doubled down on his statements in support of the cynical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), saying suppressing such movements in a democracy would be “foolish” and warning that ignoring youth frustration could be “disastrous”.
In a new series of posts on X, the Thiruvananthapuram MP defended his earlier comments praising the rise of the meme-based political satire movement, which has spread across social media platforms in recent days.
“Democracy needs outlets for frustration.”
“I welcome the rejection of my participation and interview on the #CockroachJantaParty phenomenon,” Tharoor wrote, responding to criticism that the movement was artificially inflated or linked to Pakistan-backed online activism.
Such claims are “overly simplistic,” Tharoor said, referring to counterclaims made by RJD founder Abhijit Debaki that the vast majority of the movement’s followers reside in India. He added that the social media platform Instagram should “set things right.”
However, the Congress leader stressed that the bigger issue is not who created the movement, but what it stands for.
“The great virtue of democracy is the outlets it provides for public sentiment, frustration and grievances. Allowing them to be aired on a satirical website is in the national interest,” Tharoor wrote.
He also said that the movement had exploited “a great tension in national sentiment among our youth” and urged the government and opposition parties to address the underlying anger rather than trying to suppress it.
“I prefer sarcasm to chaos.”
Using a pressure cooker analogy, Tharoor said such movements function as democratic safety valves.
“Such movements act like the valves in a pressure cooker, releasing steam. If the valves are closed, the cooker will explode under the pressure. I prefer cynicism to anarchy, anarchy, or revolution,” he wrote.
Demanding that the comment on X be cancelled, he added: “Let’s lift the ban and listen!”
Tharoor says the statements were not pro-Congress
In another post, Tharoor clarified that his statements were not intended to provide partisan support to the Congress party.
“And to those who pointed out that @abhijeet_dipke is equally critical of Congress, I was not seeking to make a narrow partisan issue but a broader political point,” he wrote, while sharing an article by political commentator Rashid Kidwai on the challenges facing the opposition.
Tharoor had earlier described the movement as “an opportunity that the opposition must seize”, saying that it reflects real frustration among India’s youth and shows the need for mainstream politics to return to young voters.
What is Janta Cockroach Party?
The Kokroche Janta Party, which Debki founded after outrage over Chief Justice Surya Kant’s comments in which he compared some unemployed youth to “cockroaches” and “parasites”, has quickly grown into one of India’s largest online satirical movements.
The group describes itself as “the voice of the lazy and unemployed” and uses satirical statements, memes and online campaigns to channel frustration over unemployment, rising costs and political disillusionment among young Indians.
Within days of its launch, the group had amassed millions of followers on social media and even attracted participation from politicians across party lines, including Trinamool Congress MPs Mahua Moitra and Kirti Azad.
