The Mighty Roach: Why the Powerful See Activists & Youngsters as Vermin

'There are youngsters like cockroaches, they don't get any employment, they don't have any place in profession,' India's CJI recently said.

(Photo: The Quint)

On 15 May 2026, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant observed: "There are already parasites of society who attack the system and you want to join hands with them? There are youngsters like cockroaches, they don't get any employment, they don't have any place in profession. Some of them become media, some of them become social media, some of them become RTI activists, some of them become other activists, and they start attacking everyone…"

He also said he had "serious doubts" about the genuineness of law degrees held by some Delhi-based advocates active on social media, said he was waiting for an appropriate case to order an investigation, and suggested a CBI probe. The bench referred to "thousands of fraudulent people wearing black robes."

Later, he claimed he was misquoted: "What I had specifically criticised were those who have entered professions like the Bar with the aid of fake and bogus degrees. Such persons have sneaked into media, social media, and other noble professions and hence they are like parasites." "It is totally baseless to suggest that I criticised the youth of our nation."

He added: "It is not an exaggeration to say that Indian youth have great regard and respect for me, and I too see them as the pillars of a developed India."

The CJI didn't offer any evidence for his claim that "Indian youth" have great regard for him, besides the regard reserved for the office he holds, that is. He also didn't offer any evidence for the claim that India is developed.

Some of the implications in these words, whether he was quoted accurately, or "misquoted" as he claims, deserves deeper attention.

Key Takeaways from CJI's Comments

First, unemployment is a personal failure.

If anyone is unemployed, they have failed. Perhaps because in the mind of the person saying this, employment opportunities are abundant? So many jobs flying around, and yet the youth remains unemployed. Public employment in Army, Railways, Bureaucracy, Police is increasing multifold every year. Investment by private companies in India's economy is skyrocketing, FDI has increased so much that government is telling people- please buy more gold. And yet, there are people who are still unemployed?

What losers.

Second, losers join media, social media, become RTI activists or non RTI activists.

Perhaps there should have been another clarification. The part of social media run by the BJP's IT cell is just fine. The part of the "media" owner by businessmen affiliated with the BJP who ask Prime Minister Modi questions about mangoes are also fine. The RTI activists who revealed discrepancies when the Congress Party is in power are just fine.

The problem is with those who think that Indian citizens have a right to demand accountability from this government. If you do so, you are a traitor. Traitor to who? The powerful. The powerful punish treachery. By the way, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is a self proclaimed NGO and its members are "activists". Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi also started as "activists". MK Gandhi and BR Ambedkar were also activists.

Third, the CBI probe.

Governments are all-powerful. They can bully citizens. Constitutional courts are created to protect citizens from governments. They are supposed to be check the government's tendency to get drunk on power. Here, however, we see the top court revealing fantasies about wide ranging CBI probes. Who will protect citizens from the court?

Let us, however, get some perspective. Who said it, was he misquoted or accurately quoted is besides the point. You can read about the history of words like "cockroaches", "vermin", "pests" being used for people and see what has followed the use of these words.

Pieces are being written about the valuable role cockroaches play in the ecosystem. 

Are Youth Really the Cretin?

The most important questions would be: Is the condition of the Indian youth in the scheme of things, in the polity, in governance, equal to that of cockroaches in human society? When old men, sometimes nearing 65 sometimes over 70, who occupy positions of power all over India see India's youth, do they see cockroaches? The answer has to be a resounding YES.

Just survey the landscape. Unemployment is rising. Exams leak. FDI has vanished. Government keeps lamenting that private companies don't invest. Wages are stagnant. Suicides among the youth, among farmers, are rising. Cities are breaking down. When young people protest, they are lathi-charged. The press, whose job it is to ask questions of the government, has become the government's cheerleader.

In 2024, 38 percent of the batch of 2024 across 23 campuses remained unplaced. According to the State of Working India Report, "Graduate unemployment among the 15 to 29-year-olds remains high—nearly 40 percent among the 15 to 25-year-olds, and 20 percent among the 25 to 29-year-olds; and, only a small share secure stable salaried jobs within a year of graduation."

Indian cities occupy five out of the top ten spots in the most polluted cities list. The period for which the Indian government has released suicide data is 2024. The number of deaths by suicide by students is at its highest ever. The total number of deaths by suicide? Second-highest ever. The Reserve Bank of India tells us India's household debt is at 41.3 percent of GDP.

Surjit Bhalla, known to be a BJP supporter, observes in his column in The Indian Express titled 'BJP is Winning Elections and Losing the Economy':

"For the period of BJP rule from 2014 onwards, India’s rank in terms of GDP growth is ninth, in terms of per capita GDP growth, the rank is eighth, and it’s placed sixteenth in terms of per capita growth in US dollars. Bangladesh is the first in terms of US dollar growth, with an average per capita growth of 8.3 percent per annum. Ethiopia is second, at 7.2 percent, India is sixteenth at just 4.7 percent."

Who Really is to Blame?

The country has been brought to these dire straits by powerful old men, not by the cockroach youth.

Those who live in such conditions and yet keep bringing these 65+ aged people back to power while being okay with them not answering questions, or being accountable to anyone, will most certainly be seen as cockroaches by these powerful old men.

Will things change? Will the youth be able to ensure that these powerful old men see them with dignity, as human beings? The answer for me lies in a nazm by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, not about cockroaches but about dogs:

The social media handles of the Cockroach Janta Party have been taken down in India. I imagine powerful old men are having nightmares about a version of Ramdhari Singh Dinkar's famous poem:

"Sinhaasan khaali karo, ke cockroach aate hain."

(The author is a lawyer and research consultant based in Mumbai. This is an opinion piece, and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)