The Instagram account of the satirical political campaign Cockroach Janta Party was hacked, its creator Abhijit Dipke said on Saturday.Dipke added that his personal Instagram account had also been hacked. Meta, the company that owns Instagram, had taken down the backup account of the social media campaign as well. Please note that we currently do not have access to any of our platforms. Any post made after this should not be considered an official statement from the Cockroach Janta Party.— Abhijeet Dipke (@abhijeet_dipke) May 23, 2026
The X account of the campaign was withheld in India on Thursday. Hours later, Dipke said that the campaign had opened a new X account.The campaign, which began on May 16, describes itself as a “political front of the youth, by the youth, for the youth”.Dipke is a 30-year-old political communications strategist from Pune. He 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 May 15 comparing some unemployed youngsters to “cockroaches”, the campaign has garnered 21.7 million followers on Instagram.“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.”On Saturday, Dipke said that he had lost access to all of the campaign’s social media handles.“Any post made after this should not be considered an official statement from the Cockroach Janta Party,” he said on X at 8.45 am.In another post, Dipke said that action should be taken against Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan for the undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test being cancelled following a paper leak.“But in New India, action is being taken against the Cockroach Janta Party for demanding accountability,” he added. ‘No call for protest’Earlier on Saturday, Dipke said in a social media post that the Cockroach Janata Party had not called for any protests in the country. “The government is just waiting for one mishap to demonise the entire movement,” read a post on the campaign’s X page. “We request all cockroaches to remain peaceful and careful.”This came after the Bengaluru Police stated that it had not given permission for any demonstration near the city’s Town Hall, reported The Times of India. A purported poster had earlier been circulated under the banner of “Cockroach Janata Party Karnataka”, asking residents to join a peaceful human chain near Town Hall on Sunday, according to The Hindu. Soon after, the police stated: “The public is advised not to knowingly or unknowingly forward or share the said message through social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, X, etc., and not to gather near Town Hall.”A protest had also been called in Haryana’s Rohtak on Friday under the banner of the Cockroach Janta Party, reported The Indian Express.
