NEW DELHI — Engineering graduate Abhijeet Dipke said he didn’t intend to spark a student movement, after India’s chief justice reportedly likened young people who criticised the government to “cockroaches” and “parasites”.

The 30-year-old, who was looking for work in the United States at the time, said he was “taken aback” by the comments made by Chief Justice Surya Kant – who later claimed they were taken out of context.

Despite rapid economic growth, millions of people in the world’s most populous nation struggle to find stable and well-paying jobs, fuelling discontent.

“How can the custodian of the constitution compare the youth with cockroaches and parasites, just for expressing their opinions and criticising the system?” Dipke told AFP.

Dipke went online in May to air his frustrations, making a satirical post on X that said: “What if all cockroaches come together?”

The post went viral, driving Dipke to transform the idea into a parody platform that he named the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), playing on the name of country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“Within two hours we got some 5,000 sign-ups on the Google form... and that made me realise – why not launch an official website and a manifesto?” Dipke said.

More 30,000 people joined within 24 hours of its launch, he added.

Street protest

It now has more than 22 million followers on its Instagram account, eclipsing the BJP’s by 13 million followers.

“That is when I realised maybe the youth here is trying to send a message,” he said.

Dipke said momentum for the movement has been largely driven by Gen Z students in their 20s.

“They told me they are really dissatisfied with all the existing political parties, because nobody listens to them,” he said.

“There is some genuine frustration... not just a social media trend.”