India's viral "cockroach" political parody group says its website has been blocked just days after it launched.

The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has gained more than 20 million online followers since being set up as a joke after India's chief justice reportedly compared unemployed young people to the insects.

He later clarified he was referring to people with "fake and bogus degrees", not India's youth more broadly.

Its website can no longer be accessed in the country and also appears to be down elsewhere. The group's founder Abhijeet Dipke said Indian officials had "taken down our iconic website" and asked why they were "so scared of cockroaches".

He wrote on X that the group, which is not an official political party, was already working on a new "home" and added: "Cockroaches never die."

Its official X page - with more than 200,000 followers - is also inaccessible in the country. Those trying to open it are shown a message that it has been withheld "in response to a legal demand".

Dipke, a political communications strategist and student at Boston University in the US, has also claimed both his personal Instagram and the group's have been hacked.

The CJP - or the cockroach people's party - satirises the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has been in power since 2014.

The group claims to be "the voice of the lazy and unemployed". Its tongue-in-cheek membership criteria include being chronically online and having "the ability to rant professionally".

READ ALSO: India has a new political superstar – a cockroach

It has used AI-generated images to promote its cause online and has inspired the hashtag #MainBhiCockroach ("I too am a cockroach").

The group's Instagram account has amassed more than 22 million followers - more than twice as many as the BJP's.

Young volunteers have also turned up dressed as cockroaches at clean-up drives and protests in recent days.

Dipke previously told the BBC that the group's popularity spoke to wide discontent among young Indians about the high unemployment rate, and a feeling they are being ignored by mainstream politics.

India has one of the world's youngest populations, with roughly half its 1.4 billion people under 30 years. Yet formal political participation remains limited.

DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.

Tags:

India's 'cockroach party' parody group says their website has been blocked

Suggested for you

More Stories

Asunafo North Cocoa Farmers Union and partners save rural schools from infrastructure problems

Africa should be where money is invested, not where money is given for free — Finance Ministry Official

Former finance minister Romuald Wadagni is now Benin's new president

Mama's Alzheimer disease means I live for the moment with her

Energy Commission Pushing for Clean Energy Transition

International Day of the Boy Child in Accra

Discussion