Cockroach Janta Party’s X account blocked, founder calls it an ‘own goal’ by the government

The X account of satirical political campaign Cockroach Janta Party was on Thursday blocked in India.

The profile was withheld “in response to a legal demand”, the platform said.

The social media campaign, which began on Saturday, describes itself as a “political front of the youth, by the youth, for the youth”.

It was created by Abhijeet Dipke, a 30-year-old political communications strategist from Pune. Dipke has a background in public relations and journalism, and was part of the Aam Aadmi Party’s social media team.

Since it was launched in response to reports of remarks by Chief Justice Surya Kant on Friday comparing some unemployed youngsters to “cockroaches”, the campaign had garnered 13.8 million followers on Instagram as of Thursday afternoon. It was ahead of 8.8 million followers of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on the platform and 13.3 million of the Congress.

“There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment or have any place in profession,” PTI had quoted Kant as having said. “Some of them become media, some of them become social media, RTI activists and other activists and they start attacking everyone.”

After the X account was withheld on Thursday, Dipke asked in a post on Instagram “why are they so scared of us?”

He asked if the page had been blocked because the...

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