Government blocked our site. Government banned our protest. Government called us a national security threat. Cockroaches don't die — they multiply.
72 Hours of Bans — The Timeline
Between May 21 and May 24, 2026, the Indian government and its agencies mounted a multi-front crackdown on the Cockroach Janta Party — simultaneously targeting its website, its social media presence, its founder's reputation, and a planned street protest in Bengaluru. Here is what happened, in order.
May 21, 2026: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) blocked the CJP website cockroachjantaparty.org under Section 69A of the IT Act, citing "national security" grounds. The block was confirmed by Business Today, which reported it was carried out after action against CJP's X and Instagram handles. Source: Business Today
May 21-22, 2026: CJP's X (Twitter) account was withheld in India under a government order. Its Instagram account — which had grown to 21.9 million followers, outpacing BJP's official Instagram within four days of launch — was hacked with access lost. Sources: Business Today, Al Jazeera
May 23, 2026: India's Intelligence Bureau labelled CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke a "national security threat," according to Deccan Herald reporting. Dipke confirmed that his social media accounts and website had been taken down and publicly alleged a government crackdown. Source: Deccan Herald
May 24, 2026 (today): Bengaluru Police confirmed that no permission had been sought or granted for a Cockroach Janta Party human-chain protest planned near Town Hall. The planned protest would have brought the movement to South India's largest tech city — a Bengaluru angle that carried obvious significance for Karnataka's urban youth. Source: Deccan Herald
May 24, 2026 (today): Abhijeet Dipke released a video alleging a "conspiracy to demonise" the movement, distancing himself from calls for the Bengaluru protest and warning that bad actors were attempting to frame CJP. Source: WION News
Five actions. Four days. One movement. The sequence was not coincidental. It was coordinated.
What They're Trying to Suppress
To understand why the government moved this fast and this hard, you need to understand what CJP actually built — and what it was demanding when the crackdown began.
The Cockroach Janta Party was founded after the Chief Justice of India, in open court, dismissed protesting students by calling them "cockroaches." The students did not retreat. They adopted the name.
What followed was one of the fastest political mobilisations in Indian digital history:
- An Instagram account that reached 21.9 million followers — surpassing BJP's official count within four days of launch
- A petition demanding Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation over the NEET-UG 2026 exam paper leak, which gathered 6 lakh (600,000) signatures before the website was taken down
- Over 56,000 registered members in the CJP database
- Confirmed activity in states across India, from Maharashtra to West Bengal to Bengaluru — South India's tech capital, where a human chain near Town Hall had been planned for May 24
The NEET exam whose paper leaked affected 22.79 lakh students. At least three student suicides have been linked to the cancellation of the exam. A CBI probe has resulted in eleven arrests, including an NTA-appointed expert. CJP's petition asked one question: why does the minister who oversaw this still hold office?
The Bengaluru angle matters specifically because South India has its own politics, its own media, and its own relationship with the BJP-led central government. A mass CJP presence in Bengaluru would have expanded the movement from a primarily North Indian and Maharashtrian story into a pan-Indian one. The protest ban happened before that could unfold.
Who Is the Real Danger?
India's Intelligence Bureau classified a satirist as a national security threat. The minister who oversaw the exam leak has faced no consequences. This contrast is not analysis — it is the documented state of affairs as of May 24, 2026.
Consider what Abhijeet Dipke has actually done, as sourced from published reporting:
- Founded a satirical party named after a judicial insult (Al Jazeera)
- Filed a petition demanding a minister's resignation over a documented exam scandal (Business Today)
- Received WhatsApp death threats and required round-the-clock police protection at his home and his parents' home
- Released a public video alleging a government crackdown and a conspiracy to demonise his movement (WION News, Deccan Herald)
None of this constitutes a national security threat under any standard definition of the term. What it constitutes is an accountability demand — from a citizen, through legal civic channels — directed at a minister who has not resigned.
The irony writes itself. The satirist is the national security threat. The exam minister is safe. The cockroach is receiving death threats. The leaker of a paper sat by 22 lakh students has eleven companions in CBI custody, but the person who oversaw the institution that appointed the leaker still sits in his ministry.
That inversion of danger — who is threatening whom — is the thing that the crackdown has made impossible to ignore. Every ban produced more coverage. Every block created a new audience. The Bengaluru protest ban brought South India into a story that might otherwise have stayed north. The IB classification made international wire services treat CJP as news.
— or join free and add your name to the record.
The Bengaluru Dimension
The planned human-chain near Town Hall in Bengaluru was not a random location. Bengaluru is India's technology and startup capital, home to a large young professional population, a significant Dalit and OBC student community, and one of the country's most politically engaged urban electorates. It sits in Karnataka — a state currently governed by the Congress, in opposition to the BJP-led central government.
A CJP presence in Bengaluru would have done several things simultaneously: given the movement a South Indian identity, brought the Karnataka opposition angle into the story, and put the IB's "national security threat" classification in front of an audience with both the media access and the civic infrastructure to amplify it.
Bengaluru Police's confirmation that "no permission was sought or granted" was careful official language. What it meant practically was that a planned protest did not happen. Whether the protest was genuine CJP activity or, as Dipke alleged, a plant designed to discredit the movement — the effect was the same: one more action taken against CJP's right to organise, and one more story for South India to read.
Sources: Deccan Herald — Bengaluru Police statement, WION News — Dipke conspiracy allegation
Still Here
The cockroachjantaparty.org website is blocked. The .buzz community site — this one — is not. It remains the active surviving surface: the blog, the badge, the join form, the manifesto, the press archive.
The petition demanding Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation gathered 6 lakh signatures before the site went down. The website was blocked. The demand has not been withdrawn — it has migrated to every platform that carried the story, including this one, and to the floor of Parliament, where Rahul Gandhi publicly repeated it on the same day as the Bengaluru protest ban.
The IB called a satirist a national security threat. Al Jazeera covered it. Business Today covered it. Deccan Herald covered it. WION covered it. The BBC noticed. So did CBS News.
Every ban produced more press. Every block created a new audience. Every government action made the movement harder to ignore, not easier to suppress. This is the Streisand Effect operating at national scale.
Cockroaches don't die. They multiply.