Main Bhi Cockroach: How a supreme court insult became India’s biggest political account

NEW DELHI (The Thursday Times) — India’s Chief Justice called unemployed youth cockroaches from the bench of the Supreme Court. Six days later, the movement that name inspired had more Instagram followers than any political party in the country’s history, its founder was fielding calls from opposition MPs and retired bureaucrats, and the government had moved to silence it on social media.

The 30-year-old from Pune at the centre of it all, Abhijeet Dipke, was not planning a revolution. A political communications strategist completing a public relations degree at Boston University, he was watching a clip from the Supreme Court on 15 May 2026 when Chief Justice Surya Kant compared unemployed youth to cockroaches during a hearing on fraudulent professional credentials. By the following morning, Dipke had turned the insult into a party. By the end of the week, that party had 18 million followers.

Within 24 hours of the Chief Justice’s remarks, Dipke had turned the insult into a movement. Within five days, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) had accumulated 18M+ Instagram followers, surpassing the publicly visible follower counts of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (8.8 million), the Indian National Congress, and the Aam Aadmi Party. It had done so with fewer than 70 posts. The BJP, by comparison, has published more than 6,000.

By Thursday, 21 May 2026, CJP’s X account was withheld in India, with X citing a legal demand it did not identify. CJP’s X (formerly Twitter) account was withheld inside India, with X citing a legal demand it did not identify. In a separate video message, Dipke claimed that attempts had been made to access his Instagram account without authorisation, though this has not been independently verified. “Many attempts are being made to hack our account,” he said. “I find it funny that these cowards are targeting young 20-21-year-old students.” The CJP returned on X within hours under the handle @Cockroachisback.

This is the story of what happened. And what it means for India.

How It Happened: A Timeline

What Did Chief Justice Surya Kant Actually Say?

During a 15 May 2026 Supreme Court hearing on fraudulent professional credentials, Chief Justice Surya Kant said:

“There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment or have any place in the profession. Some of them become media, some of them become social media, RTI activists and other activists and they start attacking everyone.”

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Supreme Court, 15 May 2026

The Chief Justice subsequently clarified that his comment was directed at people who obtain bogus professional degrees, not at unemployed youth broadly, whom he called “the pillars of a developed India.” The clarification was widely reported. It did not stop what came next.

Who Is Abhijeet Dipke?

Abhijeet Dipke, 30, is from Aurangabad (now Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar), Maharashtra. He is a political communications strategist who was completing a public relations degree at Boston University in the United States. Dipke says he worked on the Aam Aadmi Party’s social media team between 2020 and 2022, specifically on the meme-driven campaign strategy for the Delhi Assembly elections.

Dipke has been careful to position the movement as a democratic, constitutional exercise. “The youth of this country are far more mature, aware, and politically conscious than many give them credit for,” he posted. “They understand their constitutional rights and will express their dissent through peaceful and democratic means.”

The Numbers That Stopped India

The single most striking comparison is not the follower count itself. It is the post count. The ruling party of the world’s most populous democracy has spent years and billions of rupees building an Instagram presence, publishing over 6,000 posts. The Cockroach Janta Party had fewer than 70 when it overtook them. That gap is not a quirk of the algorithm. It is a measurement of institutional trust collapse.

The CJP Manifesto: Satire With Serious Demands

The CJP calls itself “a party for the young people who keep getting called lazy, chronically online, and most recently cockroaches.” Its manifesto contains demands that are entirely serious:

• No post-retirement Rajya Sabha seats for Chief Justices — CJI-to-Rajya Sabha appointments have long been criticised as compromising judicial independence.
• 50% women’s reservation in Cabinet and Parliament — not 33%, not someday. Now.
• Cancel media licences held by Adani and Ambani corporations — and investigate politically aligned news anchors.
• 20-year public office ban for party defectors — no loopholes.
• UAPA charges for election officers who delete valid votes — treating electoral fraud as terrorism.
• Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation over the NEET-UG paper leak.

The X Account That Was Silenced. And Came Back.

On 21 May 2026, five days after CJP’s founding, X (formerly Twitter) withheld the CJP account in India “in response to a legal demand.” No government ministry or political party has publicly claimed responsibility. Dipke said the ban was “expected.” He separately claimed, without providing independently verified evidence, that attempts had been made to access his Instagram account without authorisation. The identity of whoever filed the legal demand with X has not been made public.

The movement responded immediately. CJP returned as @Cockroachisback, posting: “You thought you can stop us?” Fifty-plus state chapter accounts continued publishing without interruption.

The Hydra: 50+ State Chapters and Growing

One of the government’s miscalculations, if the X suppression was intended as one, is that the Cockroach Janta Party was never a single account. By the time CJP’s X handle was withheld, more than 50 independent state chapter accounts had already been operating, each with its own following, its own content, and in some cases its own extended manifesto.

The Maharashtra CJP account, with 1.7 lakh followers, published its own five-point state manifesto: universal employment and skill-based placements; quality water, power and public transport; economic fairness and price control; accountable and corruption-free governance; and universal access to public services. West Bengal, Telangana, Kerala, and Jammu chapters are all active.

The structure mirrors what commentators have called the movement’s core strategic insight: it designed itself, intentionally or not, to be ungovernable by suppression. Every account that is withheld spawns two more. Every hack attempt generates a news cycle. The cockroach metaphor is operationally accurate.

Bihar Next: Can 18 Million Followers Win a Real Election?

CJP is not registered with India’s Election Commission and cannot formally contest elections. Some supporters have publicly suggested fielding an independent candidate in Bihar’s Bankipur Assembly by-election, though no formal announcement has been made by the movement’s leadership. Graduate unemployment in Bihar is widely described as severe. NEET cancellation protests have swept the state. If a candidate runs under the CJP banner and polls meaningfully, it would mark a significant moment for protest politics in India.

Why the World Is Watching

The Cockroach Janta Party is an Indian story. But its audience extends far beyond India’s borders. The Indian diaspora in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and the Gulf states is among the most politically engaged expatriate communities in the world. Many are first- or second-generation migrants who left India precisely because of the employment crisis the CJP is naming. The hashtag #MainBhiCockroach trended globally, not just in India.

International outlets from Al Jazeera to the Associated Press, CNN to ABC News have covered the movement. But The Thursday Times, the only bilingual South Asian publication with bureaus from Washington DC to Islamabad, is positioned to tell this story with the depth, cultural fluency, and editorial independence it demands. We are, as our tagline goes, dangerous to those who trade in lies.

What Comes Next

The Cockroach Janta Party has existed for five days. Its X account was suppressed within five days of its founding and has already returned. Its Instagram account has 18.3M+ followers and 63+ posts, with both numbers still climbing. Its founder is a 30-year-old from Pune running a global political movement from the United States while completing a university degree. Its membership includes a former federal bureaucrat, two opposition MPs, and hundreds of thousands of people who signed up via a Google Form, according to early reports.

Whether this is a meme or a movement, whether it fades with the news cycle or appears on a ballot in Bihar, will define not just the CJP’s future but the nature of Indian political participation for a generation that has been told, by a Supreme Court judge, that they resemble pests.

Cockroaches, as it turns out, are extraordinarily difficult to exterminate. They survived the dinosaurs. They survive nuclear tests. They survive governments.

The Thursday Times will continue to cover this story. Follow us at thursdaytimes.com and @thursday_times.

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