There is seldom just one cockroach in the kitchen. “You turn on the light and they all start scurrying around,” warned American businessman-philanthropist Warren Buffett, using the metaphor to describe hidden problems inside corporations. Today, governments too are increasingly run like corporations, with prime ministers expected to function like CEOs.
Against this backdrop, the emergence of the “Cockroach Janta Party” (CJP) or Cockroach People’s Party — a satirical social media platform reportedly triggered by a remark made by India’s Chief Justice Surya Kant during a court hearing on May 15, when he likened unemployed Indian youth to cockroaches — suggests that discontent within and with the Narendra Modi government may run far deeper than it appears on the surface.
The extraordinary traction the CJP accounts gained on Instagram and X, with more than 20 million followers, indicates that a section of India’s middle class and youth no longer feels represented by the existing political and economic order. Unlike Franz Kafka’s Gregor Samsa, they are no longer willing to quietly survive on the rotten crumbs thrown at them. And when the Indian middle class, like Gregor, longs for “fresh food” — dignity, opportunity, and economic relief — it is met instead with high direct taxes, inflation, and budgets that offer little meaningful respite.
