‘Cockroach Janta Party’ and The Frustration India Refuses to Hear

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By TRH Op-Ed Desk

News Analysis | The Raisina Hills | May 2026

A satirical social media account born from a judge’s remark has exposed what political analyst Manish Anand calls a 17-year economic failure and a government afraid of its own youth.

NEW DELHI — When the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant used the word “cockroach” from the bench, he probably did not anticipate that within days it would become the name of a political party with millions of followers. But for political analyst Manish Anand, speaking on the YouTube channel of The Raisina Hills, what happened next was not a surprise. It was, he argues, the inevitable result of years of establishment indifference toward a generation that has run out of patience.

The Cockroach Janta Party — a name lifted directly from Chief Justice Surya Kant’s controversial courtroom remarks — appeared on Instagram and X and drew millions of followers in a matter of days. X acted swiftly, placing the account on hold. The founder simply opened a new one. The followers kept coming, by the minute. Now, the Instagram followers of the outfit with cockroach as a mascot has more followers than Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

“This is one example,” Anand said, “of how the establishment or power sometimes overreaches.”

He noted that a pattern was already visible before the CJP episode. A video satirising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s habit of laughing loudly during meetings with foreign leaders had previously been taken down from Instagram. “Somewhere a pattern is visible,” Anand said, “that in the Modi government, satire and mockery are not tolerated — and that is quite visible on the internet.”

The fear behind the clampdown

Anand’s analysis goes beyond the mechanics of content removal. He argues that what drives the government’s anxiety is not the jokes themselves, but the generation making them.

“It seems as though a concern is growing inside the BJP about Gen Z,” he said, adding: “This is an unpredictable force, an uncontrolled community. And the way in which they toppled governments overnight in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal — that fear haunts the BJP. Does the BJP worry that what happened in Sri Lanka, in Bangladesh, in Nepal could happen in India too?”

The question, Anand made clear, is not rhetorical.

Seventeen years of jobless growth

The deeper explanation for Gen Z’s restlessness, in Anand’s telling, is economic — and long predates the Modi government. India, he points out, has an average population age of just 28. It is among the youngest nations on earth. Yet since at least 2009 — since Manmohan Singh’s second term — economists have been using a phrase that should alarm any government: jobless growth.

“The country’s nominal growth is happening but employment is not being created,” Anand said. “Those who have jobs — that quantum is merely being maintained, or even that is being reduced through layoffs. From Manmohan Singh’s second term, which began in 2009, to 2026 — you can understand that for roughly 17 years, India’s economy has been running on jobless economic growth,” added Anand.

GDP figures, he argued, are meaningless in isolation. “Economists say GDP growth means nothing if it does not improve quality of life, does not create jobs, does not expand access — quality of life, education, affordable healthcare, nutrition. If those are not available, then understand that the economy has been sending warnings since 2009. In 2026, the alarm bell is screaming loudly that something is not right,” added the analyst.

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The promise and the betrayal

What makes the frustration of today’s youth distinctively bitter, Anand said, is that they were explicitly invited to dream. The Modi government’s early years were defined by the language of aspiration — “New India,” limitless ambition, the promise that no ceiling existed for those willing to work hard.

“People became aspirational. They want to climb the socio-economic ladder. They got their educational qualifications — but they do not want to go and fry pakoras. They do not want to sell paranthas and get through life. They want work suited to their ability, skill development, gainful employment. Only then will their aspiration be fulfilled,” Anand stated.

The government’s answer — free grain for 800 million people, Jan Dhan bank accounts, housing schemes, Ayushman Bharat health cover of five lakh rupees — does not speak to that generation, Anand argued plainly.

“All this welfarism is liked by those who are not young. The youth do not want welfarism,” Anand stressed.

He pointed to the spectacle now normalised in Indian newspapers: MBBS doctors, BTech engineers, MBA and MSc graduates standing in queues to apply for police constable posts. “Today’s youth has ended up in a queue where only frustration waits ahead of them,” he added.

Even former admirers of Modi, Anand noted, are now saying so openly. He cited economist Surjit Bhalla — once a prominent intellectual supporter of the BJP — who has published an article arguing that the party is winning elections but losing the economy.

Closing windows, opening thousands

For Anand, the government’s response — suspending accounts, removing content, pressuring platforms — fundamentally misreads the situation.

“Taking down a tax account, closing a social media account — you are trying to close a temporary window. But a thousand open. As they say about cockroaches: however hard you try to kill them, the greatest survivor insect finds a way out from somewhere. In the same way, this anger, this anguish, this frustration, this restlessness will find a medium to express itself,” added Anand.

The only credible answer, he insisted, is economic — not administrative.

“You cannot bury your face from the truth. Because the truth will show its form and its shape regardless. Whether you look or not.” The response, he said, can only come from attending to the economy. “Not by arranging for someone’s account to be closed.”

Gen Z, Anand concluded, is immune to narrative management in a way that older voters are not. They graduated with large dreams. They stepped outside into the heat of the street and felt the reality land on them. And until they see comprehensive, genuine, positive change — not promises, not welfare, not stories — they will not be quiet.

“Until the situation shows them a complete and positive transformation, they will not be calm.”