Why should anyone have a voice in democracy – other than the Mann Ki Baat of PM Narendra Modi? His master’s voice is alright but your own voice? Voice of the Cockroaches were heard first on X on May 16 with creation of Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), and within 4 days, the account got banned in India after it got more than 200,000 following. It was withheld in response to the legal demand from Modi government. The original handle @CJP_2029 was taken down.

Nevertheless, there is no ban on the social media that are openly claiming that they will kill all kinds of cockroaches. The founder of the CJP Abhijeet Dipke is being trolled by a number of netizens and their language indicates that they are from the BJP-RSS family. Someone asked even caste of the founder cockroach, and he revealed that he is a Dalit from Maharashtra – A Dalit Cockroach. Hackers are very active to hack the CJP’s website cockoachjanataparty.org and their social media accounts.

Cockroaches, scientifically one of the toughest creatures of the world, and it may survive even nuclear warfare, scientists say. You may just imagine the annoyance of the Modi led BJP government, when it came to know that cockroaches got over 14.5 million followers on another social media platform on Instagram surpassing BJP’s only 8.8 million followers count. The pride of the BJP was hurt by the rise of the Cockroaches. Moreover, cockroach is back with a different handle on X @cockroachisback.

Banning the voice of the cockroaches on X is a serious matter since it throttles the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under the Constitution of India. Only a few days ago, the Norwegian journalist Helle Lyng, who works for the Oslo-based newspaper Dagsavisen, reported that her Instagram and Facebook accounts were suspended following her attempts to question India Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Norway on May 18-19, 2026. Lyng said a very small price to pay. She had asked, “Prime Minister Modi, why don’t you take some questions from the free-est press in the World?” It is worth noting that Norway is at the top in ranking in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index and India's at very low at 157th. One can see, it is not without reason.

Modi government and his party are worried because of the potential fallout of the cockroach movement in the country, as Samajwadi Party (SP) Supremo Akhilesh Yadav has said in his three word post on X – “BJP banam CJP” that is “BJP versus CJP”. Uttar Pradesh is going to poll within 18 months in 2027, where SP is the chief challenger of BJP. SP does politics on “PDA” (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak). Now it has been revealed that a Dalit cockroach has founded the CJP, while he has identified himself with unemployed cockroaches.

The trigger for the CJP is the CJI Surya Kant’s comment during hearing of a case on May 15, “There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don't get any employment or have any place in profession. Some of them become media, some of them become social media, RTI activists and other activists and they start attacking everyone.” Later he clarified that he meant “who have entered professions … with the aid of fake and bogus degrees.” Clarification has even complicated the matter since people are asking if the Constitution of India had denied access to justice even to the people with “fake and bogus degrees”, or the people who have no degree at all? People are seeing it as an attempt to denial of access to justice for “cockroaches” whatever it means according to Chief Justice of India.

CJI’s clarification has become totally ineffective on the ground level, since it has come at a time when papers are repeatedly leaked under National Testing Agency (NTA) dominated by Education Mafia, and Union Minister of Education presiding over the ministry, who was audaciously saying the other day that he did not implement the recommendation of the Parliamentary Panel to reform NTA for leak proof examinations because there were opposition leaders in it. Supreme Court had also ordered reform in 2024 after a paper leak, but paper for NEET-UG 2026 examination held on May 3 were leaked again. Under PM Modi, the NTA was launched with Rs25 crore in 2018, and by 2022-23 it was earning Rs 3,513 crore. Several students have committed suicides.

CJI’s term cockroach immediately caught imagination of the “cockroaches” whose voice is not heard by anyone, especially the government, which goes on doing whatever it likes to. We have examples, in which justices even of the Supreme Court of India were rewarded by the BJP government for direct or indirect favour in facilitating the government to do whatever they wanted to. Judgments were delayed, and in the meantime, government got their works done, though later courts found the government’s mechanism unconstitutional. Judiciary was seen increasingly aligning with the Modi government as the Election Commission of India. We have also examples of Modi government appointing Election Commissioners of their choice, won elections, and officers of the Election Commissions were rewarded with posts for their loyalty.

Whatever is happening in India, gives a feeling to the common man that they are treated just like cockroaches, they have no or little access to justice due to numerous factors, and now they are losing even right to freedom of speech and expression under PM Narendra Modi rule. Where should they go if not to judiciary and not to Election Commission, when the government refuses them even the basic rights? They had a chance to voice their concerns on the social media and on the internet, but under new law their voices are stifled by takedown orders. (IPA Service)