A Supreme Court chief justice made remarks during an open court hearing equating some youngsters with cockroaches who lack employment and a place in professions. The comments were later clarified as referring to people with fraudulent degrees and not targeting youth, described as pillars of a developed India. The remarks triggered widespread anger online, especially among Gen Z users facing unemployment, inflation, and religious divisions. A public relations graduate in Boston, Abhijeet Dipke, responded by posting a satirical question about cockroaches coming together. He then created a website and social media accounts for the Cockroach Janata Party, a parody of a major political party. The movement gained tens of thousands of mostly Gen Z sign-ins as frustration spread.
"On Friday, India's chief justice of the Supreme Court, Surya Kant, said during an open court hearing that parasites were attacking the system, and equated the youngsters to cockroaches who don't get any employment and don't have any place in a profession. There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don't get any employment or have any place in the profession. Some of them become media, some of them become social media, RTI activists and other activists, and they start attacking everyone, he said."
"Kant later clarified his remarks, saying his comment related to some people acquiring fraudulent degrees, and did not target India's youth, whom he called the pillars of a developed India. Yet, his remarks drew considerable ire, mainly from Gen Z internet users as they battle large-scale unemployment, inflation, and bitter religious divides after 12 years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government."
"As outrage escalated across social media, Dipke posted on X on Saturday: What if all cockroaches come together? He followed up on his joke and the desperately frustrated emotions behind it by setting up a website and social media accounts for the Cockroach Janata Party a play on Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Instagram and X. Those in power think citizens are cockroaches and parasites, Dipke told Al Jazeera on Tuesday from Chicago."
"The 30-year-old, a recent graduate in public relations from Boston University in the United States, finds himself leading a sweeping satirical political movement the so-called Cockroach Janta Party (janta is people in Hindi) being joined online by thousands of people with each passing day. Abhijeet Dipke has barely slept in the last 72 hours, fielding waves of messages on social media after a casual joke took an unexpected turn."
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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