It found its roots in the Chief Justice of India’s remark during a hearing at the Supreme Court on 15 May. It grew, almost overnight, on Instagram, surpassing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in followers.
The NEET-UG paper leak and subsequent exam cancellation snowballed this satirical movement into a real protest on 6 June, with hundreds gathering at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar with one clear, direct demand: the resignation of the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The Cockroach Janta Party, or the CJP, took birth as a website made a day after the CJI reportedly likened unemployed youth to cockroaches.
The movement’s founder, Abhijeet Dipke, made the website as the “voice of the lazy and unemployed,” taking a dig at the CJI’s remarks. The CJP has been relentlessly targeted by those with disdain towards the movement’s members and followers ever since.
On Social Media
With 2.2 crore Instagram followers (and counting) as on 6 June, the account itself faced scrutiny. Kiren Rijiju, the Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, ‘pitied’ the party, indirectly claiming that it had followers from “Pakistan & George Soros gang (sic).”
Minister of State for Education, Sukanta Majumdar, claimed that nearly half of the page’s followers – 49 percent – were from Pakistan and that a measly nine percent of them were Indian. Majumdar did not specify where the 42 percent were from.
This allegation was revived on the day of the protest, with one X user commenting on the turnout, saying that it proved that “70-80% of their insta followers are from Pakistan and other countries (sic).”
Dipke countered the claim on X with a screenshot from their Instagram account, which showed that a little over 94 percent of the people following it were from India.
The now-suspended X account with the handle ‘@CJP_2029’ had also shared a screen recording of the account’s reach, showing that 94.7 percent of its followers were, in fact, Indians.
An independent analysis conducted by The Quint, using Modash, also showed that majority of the page's followers were indeed from India and only a small portion were identified as bots.
This account had amassed 2.2 lakh followers, before the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) asked X to withhold it in India.
The Ministry said that the request was made on the basis of inputs from the Intelligence Bureau (IB), which cited it as a “threat to the sovereignty of India, jeopardising national security,” and that it was gaining traction among the youth, as per The Indian Express.
At the time of writing this report, the account continues to remain withheld in India.
Speaking to The Quint, CJP spokesperson Saurav Das said that Dipke had already approached the Delhi High Court regarding the account’s suspension.
When asked about their plan of action if more of their accounts got withheld or suspended, Das said, “We'll explore our options if and when that happens. But I think that would be a terrible move on part of the government because you do not want to suppress the youth's voice in such a manner, especially when there's no objectionable or violent content being shared.”
Since they only shared satirical posts, visuals from the protests, and calls for more peaceful protests, “while following all the rules and regulations,” Das said he didn’t see any of their accounts facing action in the near future. “But if it does happen then we'll explore our legal options including going to the court.”
Shortly after this, an X account with the handle ‘@CJP_for_India’, with a little over two lakh followers, began posting about the movement.
Diving into its older posts, X users were quick to notice a discrepancy. The account had shared posts about Samajwadi Party’s Dimple Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav, referring to them as parents. The user then noted that the latter was behind the Cockroach Janta Party.
This isn’t true. The date stamps in these screenshots clearly show that the posts were shared in 2022 and 2023, making it evident that the account had existed before the inception of the CJP or the CJI’s remarks.
When we looked into the account’s ‘About’ page, we saw that it had been created in 2022 and had changed its username 53 times, establishing that the account was old.
The CJP now operates under the handle ‘@Cockroachisback’ on the platform.
Not all leaders openly spoke of the ‘party’ though. One’s video was used to spread misinformation. A deepfake of the Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar, went viral with the false claim that he had asked the US to deport and hand over Dipke to the Indian government.
Team WebQoof debunked more misinformation regarding the movement. One claim said that YouTuber Dhruv Rathee had ‘exposed’ the CJP of “buying followers,” but the claim was an altered video. Rathee did not make any such accusations, as you can read in our fact-check here.
In another case, an edited video was shared to claim that Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan would be joining the CJP.
Videos from the workers’ protests were also revived by 25 May, claiming to show CJP’s followers protesting against the government.
The Press Conference
On 3 June, the movement held its first press conference at Delhi’s Constitution Club, where they announced that they would hold a protest on 6 June. Investigation journalist Saurav Das was named chief spokesperson, with Vijeta Dahiya and Ashutosh Ranka being named alongside him.
In a matter of hours, all three were subjected to criticism on social media.
Digging into their lives, social media users shared posts about Dipke, Das, and Ranka, noting that all of them were previously associated with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
One user questioned whether Dipke had been ‘planted’ in the limelight for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections.
Das was subjected to further criticism, having shared posts and a photo expressing support for Umar Khalid, who has been held at Tihar jail since 2020, without a trial. Social media users accused the movement, and Das, of being “US-backed” and having “foreign-funding.”
He reiterated the statement he made during the conference. “See, the very first press conference I had told people that there were so many people in the room and we could all gather one rupee each and afford a poster.”
Drawing on the same logic, he said, “There are so many of us who've been working for a while. All of us are pooling in our resources and getting things done to the best with the minimum cost.”
They had bare minimum facilities at the protest, Das highlighted. “We, right now, do not want to get into the business of getting funds, because that would make it easier for the movement to be delegitimised through various allegations, especially when it comes from the police authorities.”
The ‘foreign-influence’ angle was also echoed by Kerala BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who referred to the CJP as a “classic cross-border influence operation” targeting the government, “designed by vested interests to destabilize India,” in an X post.
After Dipke announced that he, too, would be flying back to India from Boston to join protesters on the ground, social media users began claiming that Dipke was forced to return because he was being deported by the US.
The claim is a widespread one, with no evidence to support it. Another post shared the same claim, while also calling the spokespersons “crooks” who want to ‘disrupt law and order’.
Some users shared an AI-manipulated photo from the presser, claiming that activist Anna Hazare was present during it.
Amid this, an X account ‘@InsiderWB’, which Team WebQoof has routinely found to share misinformation, shared a video of the Indian Army’s Chief of Defence Staff General NS Raja Subramani, claiming that he said, “There are some certain cockroaches in India and we know how to treat them. If push comes to shove, they will be treated like pests."
However, we found that this clip was a manipulated one, as in the original video, which was livestreamed by news agency ANI, there was no mention of cockroaches, as claimed.
A Facebook page shared a video ahead of the actual protest, theorising that the protesters or supporters will intentionally spread misinformation about the protest and the movement.
It baselessly claimed that “viral leaks and screenshots” showed a blueprint for a step-by-step toolkit to “manipulate the entire nation and orchestrate fake outrage.” It alleged that the CJP wasn’t an organic student movement, but was a carefully orchestrated trap.
Social media users and the right-wing propaganda website OpIndia shared screenshots from Reddit posts, claiming that the party’s members had called for a ‘Nepal-like’ revolution and sought bloodshed by attempting to ‘incite violence’ through the protest.
Clarifying that the movement believes in Gandhian principles where “there’s no place for violence,” Das said that the messaging they put out was one way they push for peaceful protests.
Owing to their medium, Das said that the page itself being “so huge” was a “great medium to disseminate information like this.”
“I think the message goes through and percolates down really well.”
Yet another content creator shared real and AI-generated visuals, ‘predicting’ what would happen on the day of the protest.
Along with repeating the ‘Dipke being deported’ claim, he also added that the protesters intended the protest to turn violent and that the only solution was for PM Modi to get Pradhan to resign.
The issue? There were no leaks or toolkits. No violence, no clashes, no denial of permission from the Delhi Police. None of what the videos theorised actually happened. The protest was peaceful and went fairly smoothly.
6 June: The Protest
Visuals from the protest took over social media that day.
After Dipke landed at Delhi’s airport, he went to the Parliament Street Police Station to obtain permission to protest, which the Delhi Police granted. They also deployed over a thousand police personnel across Delhi on 6 June, reports said.
Attempting to tie Dipke to a political party, one user named Abhishek Upadhyay cited sources to claim that his first call after landing in Delhi was made to Communist Party of India (CPI) leader and Rajya Sabha member Brinda Karat, asking why this had happened.
The CJP rubbished this claim on X, stating that “Abhijeet Dipke has never spoken to Brinda Karat in his life,” adding that “fake news” like this was the reason why the public’s trust in ‘Godi media’ was “completely eroded.”
While the CJP’s core team had categorically stated that they would not interact with ‘Godi media’, an old video of a protest dating back to February, four months before the CJP came into existence, when a reporter allegedly spoke about the Brahmin community in a derogatory manner and was removed from the area.
Among those in attendance was Ladakhi activist Sonam Wangchuk, calling for a change within the education system itself.
A photo then went viral during the protest, claiming that the protest had ‘failed’ and that it was an AI-generated one, made to show a large crowd.
However, the photo was an authentic one, taken by The Hindu’s Shashi Shekhar Kashyap. You can read our fact-check here.
Another video, showing a woman saying that if those in power refused to hear the voices of the ones gathered at Jantar Mantar, were practising authoritarianism. One user shared this clip alleging that the woman was “Marxist Neha,” who was working for French news organisation France24.
The post, which gathered nearly 5.5 lakh views, said this meant that “the French government is funding professional protesters,” further fuelling the ‘foreign-funding’ narrative.
In reality, the woman is the President of the All India Students’ Association’s (AISA) Delhi chapter, which had openly announced their presence and their support for the protest.
AISA shared visuals from the protest, where its members raised chants about student and youth unity, echoing the sentiment behind the protest’s crux and demanding Pradhan’s resignation.
More posts by social media users and news organisation Times Now claimed that spokesperson Saurav Das was spotted with ‘servant’ to fan him during the hot day.
A video, shared by NDTV journalist and content creator Arun Singh clarified the truth behind this viral claim. In an Instagram post, Singh clarified that the man was someone who walked into the area and shared his views, who had been repeatedly asked not to fan Das, but continued to do so anyway.
Some users also called the protest an ‘unorganised and unplanned’ one, adding that the movement would remain a “mainstream reality” for a few years.
Commenting on the unorganised nature of the protest, Das said that it was “testimony to the fact that people who are completely new to this are doing it and it's quite organic that way because we had nothing in mind.”
He added that the first protest taught them about things that needed to be done, like setting up a stage, arranging water and so on, adding that the way it went was proof that nobody was backing them.
A video from the protest, allegedly showing a lawyer practising at the Delhi High Court, went viral shortly after. Several social media users shared a video of the man, saying that he would be fine if someone said that "India should be divided into seven pieces."
The clip drew heavy criticism online, with netizens questioning the people present at the protest and their objectives. However, a right-wing X user, Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, rose to defend the person in the video.
Mitra asked people to not troll the man, stating that he had planted the person in the protest " to “fit in” so that he could get me more info (sic)."
During and after the protests, several media organisations, including News24, Sunday Guardian, and Moneycontrol Hindi claimed that the Delhi Police had filed a First Information Report (FIR) against the CJP protesters for partaking in “anti-national activities.”
The only credible reports we found about police action at the protest were those about six people being detained as a preventative measure to prevent any clashes between those who supported and those who opposed the protest.
The Delhi Police soon clarified that there was no FIR against the protesters.
People also shared old, unrelated videos claiming that they showed visuals from CJP’s protests. For instance, a video of a young girl from a CPI-led protest held in March 2026 was shared to discredit protesters from this event, claiming that those on the ground had no idea what they were protesting.
During our deep dive into the narratives and misinformation shared about the movement, we noticed that those sharing misinformation against the CJP until 6 June, CNBC Awaaz anchor Amish Devgan, had concluded by calling the demonstration a "failed" or a "flop" protest. (Swipe)
What's Next?
As on 9 June, the CJP has announced its second protest, which will be held at Pune’s Savitribai Phule University on 11 June, which will also include Wangchuk.
On 10 June, Dipke held the party’s second presser in Pune, talking about the “immense support” they received in Delhi. He spoke about the youth not fearing the government anymore, requesting Pradhan to resign again.
“If he does not resign, we are going to launch nationwide protests, starting tomorrow from Pune. Tomorrow at Pune University, everyone, all students—whether from MPSC or NEET—will gather and hold a massive protest, and we will demand Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation,” Dipke said.
If Pradhan still didn’t resign after it, he said that he would personally lead nationwide protests across cities, and hold one more protest on 20 June in Delhi and would not return until Pradhan resigned.
“How long will students continue to commit suicide in this country? How long will paper leaks continue in this country? How long will servers keep going down, and yet the ministers remain seated comfortably in their positions? If you make just one mistake, your future is ruined. If you make a single mistake in a company, you lose your job. But here, mistake after mistake, blunder after blunder is being made, yet there is still absolutely no resignation. So, we must fix accountability in this country somewhere, and for that, I urge everyone to support our movement.”Abhijeet Dipke on 10 June
When asked about the expected turnout for the second protest, Das said that expected a substantially large amount of people turning up at the protest. The decision was a conscious one, based on the metrics they saw, and that they had a lot of people calling them there, he told us.
“And it's also a student hub, right? A lot of the NEET paper leak arrests have been made from Pune. So I think there's definitely a lot of talk about NEET, I guess more than Delhi in Pune. So we expect a large number of student organisations, parents associations, and just the general masses to support us tomorrow there.”