India's 'Cockroach Janta Party' goes viral, spotlights Gen Z worries

A five-day-old group that channels Gen Z concerns has gone viral in India, overtaking Instagram followers of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), discussing issues like politics, inflation and unemployment — with a touch of humour. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has amassed nearly 15 million followers on Instagram in less than a week, compared with fewer than nine million for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP, which says it is the world’s largest political party. The CJP, whose logo is an outline of a cockroach on a mobile phone, calls itself the “Voice of the Lazy and Unemployed.” The group’s 30-year-old founder, Abhijeet Dipke, told Reuters the CJP was so named because of comments by Chief Justice Surya Kant last week comparing some unemployed youth to cockroaches. Kant later said he did not mean to criticise young people but was referring to those with fake and bogus degrees who were like parasites. “This is a movement to change the political discourse of India,” Dipke said from Boston, where he has been based for the last two years. “The youth of India has largely vanished from the mainstream political discourse. Nobody is talking about us. Nobody is listening to our issues or even trying to acknowledge our existence.” The CJP’s Instagram account features graphics and videos by members, talking about everything from media independence to reserving half of parliament and cabinet seats for women. It also covered the recent cancellation of a national medical college entrance test after the question paper was leaked, affecting about 2.3 million students. The bubbling anxiety among India’s youth was also reflected in a Deloitte Global survey published this week that said India’s Gen Z population, those born between 1995 and 2007, had been badly hit by a lack of jobs and high prices. “Gen Zs report higher financial stress, with a larger proportion highlighting home affordability challenges and financial insecurity,” the survey said. Gen Z postponing major life d