Cockroach Janata Party: A Satirical Campaign Takes On Political Proportions

Cockroach Janata Party, a satirical campaign launched on the internet media by Abhijit Deepak, a former AAP activist from the US, is now taking political shape in Delhi's historic Jantar Mantar. It is the place where Anna Hazare's movement against corruption in 2011 gave birth to AAP and many social activists and anonymous faces got political recognition. Now, after 15 years, a similar non-political movement has begun to raise the prospects of a new political party. In protest against the Chief Justice of India's comparison of some young people with cockroaches who harm the system, Deepak started a campaign on the internet media in May this year under the name Cockroach Janata Party. Encouraged by the number of followers on Instagram crossing 10 million, Deepak came to Delhi from the US on 6 June and staged a sit-in at Jantar Mantar to protest against the NEET paper leak, but only a few hundred people reached there. After this, he joined a protest in Lucknow, but was not allowed to speak at Jantar Mantar again until 20 June.