The Future of Cockroach Janata Party’s Protests
The burning question on every Indian lips is: What the future has in store for the Cockroach Janata Party’s agitation that’s taking place in Delhi and elsewhere.
The burning question on every Indian lips is: What the future has in store for the Cockroach Janata Party’s agitation that’s taking place in Delhi and elsewhere.
At the moment, there is no light beyond the tunnel, and the outcome of the protest may lead to regime change in Delhi or fizzle out due to factors that are obvious and need not be enumerated. Currently, the protest is continuing, and not going to die soon. Stopping the protests and detaining people will prolong the protests, and chaos and uncertainty are clearly written on the wall.
The Narendra Modi government is unable to realize the extent of public anger that exists among the youth. The government's response to the protests by using force may become counterproductive. The more force is used, the more anger may swell on the streets. So, this protest is not going to end quickly unless the government starts negotiations with the protestors. Delhi cannot remain like this for months to come.
There is similarity between the current situation and those before 1975. There was anger and frustration among the youth due to unemployment, lack of jobs, rising inflation, lack of purchasing power, etc. Indira Gandhi, instead of addressing these basic issues, went to war with Pakistan and created Bangladesh. But that did not solve the basic problems of the Indian youth that were the root cause of their anger and frustration.
Narendra Modi, right after 2014, set two priorities for dealing with the internal problems of the country. First, he let loose the Hindutva elements, the administration, and the Godi-Media to constantly attack the Muslims, making them the enemy of the country. The second thing he did was to feed the people the toxic ideology that Hindu religious nationalism is the panacea for all the ills in the country.
In the last 12 years or so, India has seen religious polarization to its extreme, and Hindu nationalism has danced its way into society. But has the play of demonizing Muslims and uniting Hindus solved the basic problem of the youth?
Now, when the impact of these two factors is being assessed, it’s found that the twin gimmick has started losing sheen. This has made the BJP government embark upon the idea of electoral fraud, removing the names of those who do not vote for the BJP.
This is only a trigger; the actual problem is somewhere else. The BJP government has declared that India is experiencing a 7.8% growth rate.
However, this post-truth narrative in the brand new republic ruffled many feathers, particularly the younger generation. The country’s youth, who have invested more than 22 years of their life to get an education in the hope of having a decent job and earning an income to take up family responsibilities, are seeing a bleak future for themselves because there are no jobs and they have nowhere to go. So they have decided to take up cudgels with the government, point fault at its arbitrary policies.
The current protests in New Delhi and other places can be compared with the mass protests that took place in the 1970s against the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The answer to the protests was the declaration of the state of national emergency in 1975. The aftermath was more protests that led to the regime change after the 1977 elections.
Now, the situation in India is the same as it existed before the 1975 emergency. This has thrown three options before the Modi government: first, to declare an internal emergency and control the protests; second is to do a false-flag operation on Pakistan and divert the people’s attention; third is to talk to the protestors and hand them the resignation of Gayaeh Kumar (Chief Election Commissioner), scrap SIR, restore the old electoral roll, etc.
But given the metal makeup of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, it looks clear that they are ready to gamble India rather than talk to the leaders of the Cockroach Janata Party.
The writings on the wall are clear: Narendra Modi has become the past tense for India, and the future is the current generation of youth in the country. According to P. Chidambaram, former Union Minister, if national elections are held today, CJP may sweep polls in several states of the country.
The Missing Secular Quotient
Indian Muslims, the biggest sufferers of the SIR process, are absent from the Cockroach agitation. The reason is that they have got stern warning that if they join the protest, their houses will be demolished. The Imams of the mosques, who otherwise are not allowed to use the loudspeakers, are asked to announce through the public address system that no Muslim youth should join the current protest of the CJP.
Not long ago, Muslims erupted in protest against the CAA and NCR in Delhi. The Shaheen Bagh agitation became the center point of protest. Muslim women were out on the streets. Umar Khalid, Sarjeel Imam, and others emerged as leaders from the Muslim community in those protests. Right now, no Muslim names are circulating in these protests. The CJP agitation lacks the secular nature of the protest.
Farmers, who led the 2020 protest, have not yet joined the Cockroach agitation. Even though they have given call in favor of the agitation. The expectation is that farmers, who make up 80% of the Indian population, should join the current protest.
Industrial workers with their trade unions are silent about the CJP’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) protest. They are watching the developments but are missing in action. They are required in full strength to join the protest.
Faqirs (Beggars) and Sanyasi, who took part in the 1957 revolt and still exist as a caste group in the Indian census report, are also missing from the protests. Their names are removed through the SIR process, but there is no awakening among them to march to Delhi.
The prominent absentees are the regional political parties who are fence-sitters on the protests. Asaduddin Owaisi has announced that the AIMIM party is not going to join the protest. Similarly, other political parties, mostly regional parties, are keeping quiet; probably they are envious of CJP’s rise.
The only hope for the Cockroach protesters is the Indian National Congress party and its allies, who are physically taking part in the protest. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi is leading the protest from the front.
Nature of CJP Protests
The other reading of the Cockroach agitation is the lack of a secular nature of the protests. As it appears, the protestors are only Hindus; that means Hindu nationalism is pitted against the Hindu youth who have rejected such mindless ideas. They are daring the Home Minister and UP Chief Minister to demolish their houses for protests. Indians are waiting to hear the music that will emerge after the bulldozers are put into action.
The origin of the Cockroach Janata Party is the remarks made by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, who called the unemployed youth "cockroaches" and "parasites." He made this remark during a Supreme Court hearing on May 15, 2026.
The CJI's remark angered the youth of the country, who impromptu formed the Cockroach Janata Party online. They exchanged their ideas on social media platforms, and their numbers grew thick and fast.
India's Intelligence Bureau (IB) flagged the online activity of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and their rapid growth as a potential threat to public order in the country. This prompted the central government to restrict the CJP’s activities on social media platforms.
The CJP activists failed to be cowed down and escalated their online anti-government activities through satire into physical protests, forcing Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resignation over exam paper leaks. They are now holding demonstrations against the CEC Gyanesh Kumar, demanding his resignation over electoral roll revision controversies.
Fingers are crossed for the future of the Cockroach Janata Party’s protests. However, what comes to mind is the quote from the poet William Wordsworth who commented on the French Revolution of 1789;
"Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!" This aptly sums up the Cockroach Janta Party’s agitation in 2026.
[The writer, Syed Ali Mujtaba, is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com.]
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