Publish Date: Fri, 22 May 2026 (14:26 IST)
Updated Date: Fri, 22 May 2026 (14:27 IST)
The Indian government directed social media platform X to block the satirical Cockroach Janta Party handle in India, citing "national security concerns," The Indian Express daily reported on Friday.
According to the report, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi received information from India's Intelligence Bureau (IB) that raised concerns around the account. India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) then directed the X social media platform to withhold the satirical account.
India has a legal framework that allows the government to intervene directly in online content by ordering platforms to remove or block content on grounds such as threats to national security or disruptions to public order.
These directives are legally binding but are not made public.
“MeitY received an input from the IB to block the X account of Cockroach Janta Party, citing that it posed a threat to the sovereignty of India. The IB believed that the account was posting inflammatory content through its account, which could have jeopardized the country’s national security," The Indian Express cited an anonymous government official as saying.
“In particular, the concern stemmed from the fact that the account’s content was gaining traction among young people," the official reportedly said.
The report said the government had sent the order to X when the account had merely 90,000 followers, citing a second government official. The 'CJP_2029' handle had over 200,000 followers when the account was finally blocked.
The parody party's main presence, however, is on a different social media platform. It had nearly 20 million followers on Instagram on Friday morning, mostly gathered over the last three days. That's more than double the 9 million followers Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party — the largest political party in the world — has on Instagram, .
“However, it is likely that the Instagram account would also be blocked, and that process is currently underway,” the senior official said.
What is the CJP and what was it posting?
The ‘cockroach’ movement began earlier this week, as a satirical criticism towards the Chief Justice of India who likening some of India’s youth to "parasites" and "cockroaches."
"There are youngsters like cockroaches who do not get any employment…some of them become media, some become social media, some RTI activists, and they start attacking everyone," he had said.
Within a day, Cockroach Janta Party — whose name is a play on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — founder Abhijeet Dipke asked, "What if all cockroaches come together?"
Up came the parody website with a five-point manifesto, promising to clamp down on corruption, inter-party defection, and increasing women's representation in the Indian parliament.
The satirical party has so far criticized the BJP over allegations of corruption, lack of employment and more recently the cancelation of the all-India pre-medical entrance exams which has reportedly led to student suicides, as per Indian media.
The group has also accused Modi's BJP of attempting to hack into the its Instagram account several times since Tuesday.
'Cockroaches' criticize entrance exam cancelation
On Friday, Dipke posted video on the Cockroach Janta Party's account, saying "I think it's time to do some real work."
He launched a petition to have India's Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan sacked over the entrance exam cancellation.
"It is the system's fault which has spoiled the future of 2.2 million students across India. It is the system's fault that NEET students have committed suicide," he said, asking fellow "cockroaches" to sign the petition.
The NEET-UG examinations were cancelled on May 12 after students had already taken the exam amid allegations of leaked papers. The high-pressure exam is set to be reconducted in June, but students across India have been impacted by the developments. As per Indian media reports, at least two students have committed suicide due to the cancelation.
DW attempted to reach out to BJP via its spokesperson but has not yet received a response.
