India's viral Cockroach Party launches nationwide youth protests

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s viral Cockroach Janta Party launched a nationwide protest campaign on Thursday with hundreds of students and young supporters gathering in the western city of Pune in the youth movement’s latest show of strength.

The rally at Savitribai Phule Pune University followed the group’s first major street protest in New Delhi last week. It demanded the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged examination irregularities and repeated paper leaks.

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, a political communications strategist and Boston University student, addressed supporters and said Thursday marked the start of a broader national campaign. He announced plans for protests in other cities and said supporters would return to New Delhi later this month if the education minister did not step down.

“The government cannot ignore the youth,” Dipke, who recently returned from the United States to lead the campaign, told reporters.

The movement emerged in May, after Supreme Court judge Surya Kant’s remarks comparing some unemployed youth to “cockroaches” triggered outrage. Supporters embraced the term as a symbol of resilience, helping the group amass more than 22 million followers on Instagram.

The movement's message has since expanded to include concerns over unemployment, rising living costs and government accountability.

The CJP mixes self-deprecating humor with political criticism. Supporters jokingly call themselves unemployed and chronically online, while videos and memes mocking unemployment, corruption and political dysfunction have attracted millions of views. Many parody CJP accounts have also adopted the cockroach as a satirical political symbol.