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 decisions

India is the world’s most populous nation and also has the world’s largest number of youth, with about 65 per cent of its 1.42 billion people under the age of 35.

Government data shows the unemployment rate for those aged 15 and above was 3.1pc in 2025, but much higher at 9.9pc among those aged 15 to 29, including 13.6pc in urban areas and 8.3pc in rural regions.

Experts say many youngsters are concerned the problem could deepen as artificial intelligence disrupts entry-level roles in the country’s vast back-office industry.

The survey said 54pc of Indian Gen Zs and 44pc of Indian millennials — born between 1983 and 1994 — have postponed major life decisions such as buying homes because of economic worries. It covered 806 respondents in India as part of a wider survey of more than 14,000 respondents globally.

Dipke cautioned against comparisons with Gen Z-led street protests in neighbouring Bangladesh and Nepal that have ousted governments and declined to say whether there were plans to form a Gen Z political party.

“It has the potential to turn into a big political movement, it has the potential to change the politics of India,” he said.

“And whatever we do, we will do within the rights of the constitution. We will do it in a very democratic and peaceful way. It won’t be something like we saw in Nepal or Bangladesh.”

Dipke said more than 400,000 people had signed up to become CJP members through a Google form, with over 70pc aged between 19 and 25. The CJP says it has four standards for members - they have to be unemployed, lazy, chronically online and able to rant professionally.

“I really like the Cockroach Janta Party because in this country no one listens to the voice of the youth and there are not enough jobs for young people,” said Siddharth Kanaujia, a 26-year-old from the northern city of Lucknow who has signed up to become a CJP member.

“But the party talks in the interest of the youth and raises the right issues. The cockroach reflects resilience, coming back strongly after every challenge.”