India Blocks Satirical ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ Website, Group Says
An Indian political parody group's website and social media were blocked following rapid growth and satirical commentary on unemployment.
Lauren Collins ·
India’s Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a political parody group that has drawn a large following online, said its website became inaccessible in India and also appeared to be down elsewhere just days after it launched.
The group said the site was blocked after CJP’s satirical posts about youth unemployment went viral. CJP said it has gained more than 20 million followers across online platforms since its creation.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said Indian officials had “taken down our iconic website” and questioned why authorities were “so scared of cockroaches,” according to posts on X. He added that the group was already working on a new online “home.”
X access restricted in India after legal demand notice
CJP’s official X account, which the group said has more than 200,000 followers, also became inaccessible in India. Users attempting to view the account were shown a notice saying it was withheld “in response to a legal demand.”
Dipke also said both his personal Instagram account and the group’s Instagram account had been hacked. CJP said it plans to establish a new online presence.
Parody group emerged after remark attributed to chief justice
The group began as a joke after India’s chief justice was reported to have compared unemployed young people to insects. He later clarified he was referring to individuals with “fake and bogus degrees,” not India’s youth more broadly, according to the account shared by CJP.
The CJP is not a registered political party. It satirizes the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has been in power since 2014, and describes itself as “the voice of the lazy and unemployed.”
CJP has used AI-generated images to promote its message online and helped popularize the hashtag #MainBhiCockroach (“I too am a cockroach”). The group said its Instagram account has amassed more than 22 million followers, more than twice as many as the BJP’s.
It was not immediately clear which authority issued the legal demand referenced by X, or whether the site would be restored. The group said it would continue posting while it builds a new platform.