The ‘Cockroaches,’ the ‘Termites,’ and the Dalit Satirist: How a Meme Party Became India’s New Frontline of Caste War
By Sat Pal Muman, 13th June 2026
A digital insurrection
An extraordinary event has recently taken place in India, precipitated not by a political manifesto or a state-level rally, but by parody and political satire. An AI-generated meme post on social media quickly became a sensation, amassing over 22 million followers at unprecedented speed. The Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) was born not from a political manifesto, but from a moment of judicial indiscretion.
The trigger came when Chief Justice of India Surya Kant made remarks that many interpreted as disparaging towards unemployed youth and activists. On 15 May 2026, the CJI reportedly stated, "There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don't get any employment... some of them become media, some of them become social media, RTI activists... and they start attacking everyone".
Although the CJI later clarified that his remarks were directed at those entering the legal profession with "fake degrees," the "cockroach" label stuck. For millions of unemployed and underemployed Indian youths, the insect had become a metaphor for their own perceived worthlessness in the eyes of the establishment.
The man behind the meme
Enter Abhijit Dipke, a 30-year-old master's student in Public Relations at Boston University. Far from the corridors of power in Delhi, Dipke saw an opportunity for political satire. He launched the CJP on May 16, inviting the "lazy and unemployed" to join a party for the people the system forgot to count. The platform exploded, gaining millions of followers on Instagram and dwarfing the digital reach of established political giants such as the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress.
Dipke did not arrive in India with standard posters or political banners. Instead, when he landed at Delhi airport, he held up a single book: Dr B.R. Ambedkar's autobiography. His arrival caused a sensation, but the mainstream media made little mention of this gesture; they quickly moved on to the main topic of the CJP campaign: seeking the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union Education Minister, over paper leaks and examination irregularities.
The turning point: ‘I am a Dalit myself’
As the CJP's popularity soared, critics began searching for the man behind the memes. The turning point came on X (formerly Twitter), when a user questioned the party's silence on structural inequalities: "But there is an important thing that you haven't answered so far — said anything on the issue of reservation nor voicing out your support for Dalit causes and social justice".
Dipke's response was a brief, identity-defining statement that would change the course of the movement: "I am a Dalit myself. I hope that will answer all your questions."
The symbolic gesture of raising Ambedkar’s book was the culmination of a weeks-long saga in which Dipke transitioned from an anonymous social media satirist to a target of intense casteist abuse. His journey reflects a growing trend of youth-led movements in India, in which the marginalised are reclaiming the demand for systemic accountability.
Since Abhijit Dipke didn't suggest he was of Muslim, Sikh, or Christian origins, the assumption was that he was Hindu. If so, the next question is what type of Hindu he might be? The focus on caste arose because he identified as a Dalit. This emphasis on caste would likely not have occurred if he had identified as non-Hindu.
The anatomy of a casteist backlash
On social media, insults and narratives were weaponised by multiple users, who targeted his identity to attack his credibility and intellect as a youth leader. Trolls claimed that, because he is a Dalit, he must be inherently opposed to academic or professional excellence: "So the self-proclaimed Gen Z leader is against Merit", a denigrating post claimed.
Many accounts accused him of strategically revealing his caste as a victimhood tactic to deflect political criticism or to gain sympathy for his movement, such as “Aa gya D card (here comes the Dalit card)."
Some right-wing and upper-caste supremacist accounts mocked his political relevance, implying that a lower-caste leader could never achieve mainstream political success: "So? You want to become PM with -40 votes?"
Because Dipke's parody movement was called the "Cockroach Janta Party" (satirising the CJI’s remark), trolls combined his Dalit identity with the party's name to hurl dehumanising slurs and insect-based insults, turning what was intended as political satire into deeply personal, caste-based degradation.
One high-profile critic posted, “…the self-proclaimed Gen Z leader is against Merit", reinforcing the trope that Dalit identity is inherently antithetical to merit. The term "D card" was frequently used to dismiss his platform as a sympathy-seeking manoeuvre rather than a legitimate movement for justice.
The ‘Termite’ rhetoric of power
To understand the intensity of the attacks on Dipke, one must look at the broader political landscape as reflected in recent national discourse. The source material highlights a trend of dehumanising rhetoric used by senior government officials.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah famously referred to illegal immigrants as "termites” during election rallies in 2019, who should be thrown into the Bay of Bengal — a statement widely condemned for its exclusionary and polarising tone. Furthermore, in December 2024, Shah made remarks in the Rajya Sabha that directly targeted the celebration of Dalit icons. He stated, "It has become a fashion to invoke Ambedkar's name repeatedly. Had they taken God's name so often, they would have secured a place in heaven for seven lifetimes."
For Dipke and his supporters, these comments dismiss the "passion" with which marginalised communities defend their rights. The backlash against Dipke's caste revelation is viewed as an extension of this environment, in which asserting a Dalit identity is labelled a "trend" or an attack on "merit" rather than a struggle for dignity.
The Ambedkarite foundation
For Dipke, holding up Dr. Ambedkar's biography at the airport was not a "fashion" but a tribute to the man he credits with his very existence in the academic world. Growing up in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (formerly Aurangabad), Dipke admits that as a child, he never aspired to study in Boston; his dreams were limited to perhaps becoming an engineer or a clerk.
He credits Ambedkar's legacy with the reservation system that transformed his family's fortunes. His father, born into extreme poverty during a drought in 1970s Maharashtra, had to drop out of school for three years because of hunger. Thanks to the reservation, his father eventually became an engineer — the only one from his village to this day.
“Just because my father was able to get the benefits of reservation... that is why I'm sitting in the US today," Dipke said in a recent interview, emphasising that Ambedkar provided the "right to equality" and a "life of dignity".
From satire to street protest
Today, the Cockroach Janta Party has shed its "satirical-only" label, becoming a ground-level activist organisation. Dipke has intensified the movement by launching a mega protest. The CJP is currently demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The protests centre on two major grievances affecting millions of students:
1. The NEET paper leak left aspirants in a state of uncertainty.
2. Alleged irregularities in the CBSE's on-screen marking (OSM) system, used for evaluation and re-evaluation of Class 12 board examinations.
As the CJP continues to grow, political scientists are beginning to ask whether Dipke's popularity signals a new era of Dalit leadership. By using digital humour to mask deep-seated social anger, Dipke has successfully engaged a Gen Z audience that has previously been disillusioned with traditional political parties.
Legal hurdles and the ‘D card’
While casteist slurs and legal challenges persist — including the recent withholding of the CJP's account on X following a legal demand in India — the movement shows no signs of slowing. For a community once labelled "cockroaches" and "parasites," reclaiming those terms has provided a new vocabulary for resistance.
As Dipke himself noted before heading to the protest site, the goal now is to guide these "chronically online" youth towards civic action, using tools such as the Right to Information (RTI) to hold the government to account. In the face of rhetoric that labels their existence as "termites" or their icons as "fashion", the Cockroach Janta Party is proving that for millions of Indian youth, identity is not a card to be played — it is the foundation of their fight for the future.
The police calculus
After his arrival at Delhi Airport on June 6, 2026, a revealing subtext to the entire episode is the Delhi Police’s handling of protest permissions. Typically, Jantar Mantar protest permissions require an application seven to ten days in advance. However, the Delhi Police fast-tracked the approval and processed it directly at the airport terminal to prevent massive crowds, logistical chaos, and potential confrontation at the Parliament Street police station.
One can reasonably assume the authorities knew he was a Dalit. Perhaps the police had prior knowledge of Dipke's background and, if he was deemed a Hindu, did not consider him a security threat. By characterising Dipke as a Dalit, the powers that be must have calculated that his influence would be limited once people were made aware of his Dalit background. Had he been a Muslim, Sikh, or Christian, he would have been arrested on landing, detained on some pretext or for anti-national activities, and forced into the contortions of legal battles to clear his name. The fast-tracked permission, granted as soon as he landed, suggests a calculated gamble that a Dalit leader could be contained through social ridicule rather than state force.
Ambedkar’s prophecy
Dr B.R. Ambedkar, in his famous book “Annihilation of Caste”, writes that “the effect of Caste on the ethics of the Hindus is simply deplorable. Caste has killed public spirit. Caste has destroyed the sense of public charity. Caste has made public opinion impossible. A Hindu’s public is his Caste. His responsibility is only to his Caste. His loyalty is restricted only to his Caste. Virtue has become Caste-ridden and morality has become Caste-bound. There is no sympathy to the deserving. There is no appreciation of the meritorious. There is no Charity to the needy. Suffering as such calls for no response. There is Charity but it begins with the Caste and ends with the Caste. There is sympathy but not for men of other Caste. The capacity to appreciate merits in a man apart from his Caste does not exist in a Hindu. There is appreciation of virtue but only when the man is a fellow Caste man. The whole morality is as bad as tribal morality.”
Dr Ambedkar further wrote that “Caste is ever ready to take advantage of the helplessness of a man and insist upon a complete conformity to its code both in letter and in spirit. A Caste can easily organise itself into a conspiracy to make the life of a reformer a living hell.”
The casteist slurs hurled at Dipke were unashamedly and deliberately intended to make him an object of contempt and to undermine his campaign. Indeed, virtue, ethics, morality, responsibility and public causes are all wrapped up in a caste identity. Such is the sorry state of Indian culture and political discourse.
The future of the ‘Cockroaches’
Following the backlash, numerous anti-caste activists and social media users came forward to condemn the abuse and express solidarity with Dipke. The question now is whether this solidarity can translate into political power.
The Cockroach Janata Party began as a joke. But in a country where a Chief Justice compares youth to insects, a Home Minister calls migrants termites, and a Dalit student from Boston is told he has no merit, the joke has turned deadly serious. Dipke is no longer just a satirist. He is a symbol. And if the reaction to his "D card" revelation is any indication, India’s upper-caste conscience is deeply afraid of what the cockroaches might do once they finally decide to swarm.
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