'Cockroach' keeps up the crawl: Police action at Dipke home, BJP ally's ‘concerns’, and now a plea in SC

IT started as a satiric meme sir frederick handley page named after an insect. A hebdomad later, police force ar guarding its founder's home, Union ministers and top leaders are making cross-border allegations, and cybercriminals are running scams in its name.The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), an unregistered online outfit founded by Boston University student Abhijeet Dipke, continues to crawl its way up in the public imagination and the government’s eye.Its latest Instagram post showed some young men and women dressed as “cockroaches” in Jaipur, Rajasthan, protesting against corruption. “Cockroaches are making their voices heard, just the way we want it, peacefully and democratically,” read the caption. In Odisha's Bhubaneshwar, some young men earlier used the motif to protest delay in job recruitments.It’s widely known now that the CJP has over 20 million Instagram followers through its memes and political commentary — surpassing the ruling BJP and main Opposition Congress — but now the matter may even reach the Supreme Court with a plea having been filed against the outfit's “commercial” interests.The Supreme Court happens to be the place from where it took inspiration in the first place — mainly for its name — after Chief Justice of India Surya Kant used the words “cockroaches” and “parasites” purportedly for unemployed youth. The CJI later clarified he was speaking only of fake degree-holders.Police at Dipke's family homeAway in Maharashtra, police were deployed around the clock outside the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar residence of Dipke's parents. Deputy commissioner of police Pankaj Atulkar told news agency PTI the deployment was precautionary."This is to ensure there is no crowding at his place since the CJP issue is trending on social media right now," he said, denying any formal threat complaint had been received.Dipke, speaking from the United States, has painted a graver picture. “I have been getting constant threats both for myself and my family, which is in India. I received a video in which a man is saying that they have reached outside my home,” he told multiple publications. His father Bhagwan told a Marathi news channel he had not slept in two nights. “I'm worried because Abhijeet is now famous. And such individuals get arrested,” he said. Mother Anita added, "We just want him to come home safely. I will not support him in this.”Dipke said his Instagram was hacked, X account withheld in India, and the CJP website taken down or restricted. The X handle was withheld "in response to a legal demand", the social media company said in its note. Now the ‘party’ has a backup account, too, on Instagram.While it faces government blocking orders, a key ally of the BJP-led NDA regime said the CJP was “triggered by unemployment”. Action thus spread to Vijayawada, where Andhra Pradesh’s ruling party TDP’s state unit chief called for “a need for concerns to be considered”, in an apparent break from a more combative route taken by the NDA's chief constituent BJP.That ‘Pakistan’ allegation, and a rebuttalFrom the ruling dispensation, familiar allegations flew as senior BJP leaders sought to frame the CJP's following as a “foreign operation”.Union minister Sukanta Majumdar claimed on Saturday that 49% of the outfit's social media followers were from Pakistan, while only 9% were from India — not providing evidence. Majumdar happens to be Minister of State for Education, directly under Dharmendra Pradhan, the Cabinet Minister for Education whose resignation the CJP had been demanding over the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak.Kerala BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar called the CJP a "classic cross-border influence operation”. Delhi BJP leader Tajinder Bagga, known for his social media presence, termed it "Pakistan Janta Party" on X.Union minister Kiren Rijiju took an indirect dig, saying India's youth population was large enough for genuine followers and there was “no need to seek validation from the anti-India gang”.Dipke, who has worked in the past for the AAP which also emerged from public anger against the then Congress-led UPA regime, responded with a video on X. He shared a screen recording of the CJP Instagram page's audience analytics, and said, “More than 94% of the audience is from India. Why is a Union Minister Kiren Rijiju labelling Indian youth as Pakistani?”TDP's cautious approachNot all allies within the NDA have been combative, and at least one has sought to take a lesson from the CJP’s rise. TDP's Andhra Pradesh unit president Palla Srinivasa Rao, whose party's 16 Lok Sabha seats are critical to the NDA's majority at the Centre, said on Sunday. "I have seen and heard about this Cockroach Janata Party, the social media sensation. They are rising on the aspirations of the youth.”He added that some concerns raised by the CJP “have to be taken into consideration”, and added, “After seeing this movement, it appears that we need to recalibrate our policies.” He did, however, caution the youth against the “influence of external forces” on social media.Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and party general secretary KC Venugopal have criticised the blocking of SJP’s handles, arguing that its existence only reflects public mood.But a man identified as Raja Choudhary is not pleased.SC plea filed, scam fearedOn Sunday, he filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a CBI investigation into the CJP. His argument is that oral courtroom remarks made by CJI Surya Kant are being used for commercial use.Chaudhary, whose details were not immediately known, flagged trademark applications filed for the expression ‘Cockroach Janta Party’, and said this amounted to judges’ observations being “appropriated for commercial exploitation, political branding, meme merchandising, trademark benefits, or monetised digital circulation”.Away from its own trysts and troubles, the CJP “movement” has now spawned a secondary scam ecosystem — arguably a marker of genuine viral mass reach.The Punjab Police issued an advisory after phishing links posing as CJP membership invitations began circulating on WhatsApp.In a video, on X, a Ludhiana Police officer warned that it's “not a joke”.“As soon as you click on this link, your phone will be hacked instantly, and all your banking details will be transferred to the scammers,” he said in the official video. He added that the scam messages use appeals targeted at young people, such as, “The country's calling for a change in the system, the time has come.” The link with it, police in the AAP-ruled state cautioned, may not be genuine.