4 min readNew DelhiUpdated: May 21, 2026 06:51 PM IST
The X handle of Cockroach Janta Party, a satirical platform, was withheld in India this afternoon, its founder Abhijit Dipke said in a post. “As expected Cockroach Janta Party’s account has been withheld in India,” Dipke posted from his account.
Less than two hours later, he announced a new handle for the platform, ‘Cockroach is Back’, and urged people to join it.
According to X guidelines, any account or post is withheld if the social networking site receives a “valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity”.
“Such withholdings will be limited to the specific jurisdiction that has issued the valid legal demand or where the content has been found to violate local law(s),” it says.
The government has not yet publicly commented on the platform or the withholding of its X account.
Dipke, 30, is from Pune and is pursuing a Master’s in public relations at Boston University.
The satirical platform was launched in response to a remark by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant that sparked a row.
On May 15, the Chief Justice pulled up a lawyer who approached the Supreme Court, saying he was entitled to a senior advocate designation.
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Coming down heavily on the lawyer, the Chief Justice questioned if “pursuing” the designation looked “proper”. “There are already parasites of society who attack the system, and you want to join hands with them? There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment or have any place in (a) profession. Some of them become media, some of them become social media, RTI activists and other activists, and they start attacking everyone,” he said.
Follow now! https://t.co/cP2UHq4akq
— Abhijeet Dipke (@abhijeet_dipke) May 21, 2026
The remarks triggered a row, following which the Chief Justice clarified that it is “totally baseless” to suggest that he criticised the youth and that he was specifically referring to those who have entered professions like law with “fake and bogus degrees”.
“What I had specifically criticised were those who have entered professions like the Bar (legal profession) with the aid of fake and bogus degrees. Similar persons have sneaked into the media, social media, and other noble professions as well, and hence, they are like parasites. It is totally baseless to suggest that I criticised the youth of our nation. Not only am I proud of our present and future human resource, but every youth of India inspires me,” he said.
Shortly after the Chief Justice’s remark, Abhijeet Dipke criticised it in a post on X. The next day, he announced a platform for all “cockroaches” and shared a link to an online ‘membership form’. This started the social media trend.
While one section of social media users, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, have given the platform a shoutout, another has dismissed it as a viral trend that will pass.
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Earlier, Dipke had told The Indian Express, “I just created a Cockroach Janta Party poster using AI, and I made the eligibility criteria. I noticed that within a few hours, we received some 5,000 responses from people standing up as members of the Cockroach Janta Party. That made me think this was the time to start a new handle (on X) and we got 10,000 followers in 12 hours,” he said.
“This is something unprecedented that is happening. The plan is to change the political discourse and to make politicians more accountable. As we can see, politics or governance today is no longer accountable to the people, especially to the youth. We will see how to go about it,” he said.
Meanwhile, a Zila Parishad member in Haryana’s Rohtak has announced a protest on Friday under the banner of the ‘Cockroach Janta Party’. Jaidav Dagar, 31, has said he identifies with those called “cockroaches” and will raise his voice “against injustice and public issues that demand attention”.
