'Cockroach' To People's Movement: How The Student Protest Outgrew Founders

It ended where, in many ways, it had begun. Moments after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned on Saturday, Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), thanked Chief Justice Surya Kant.It was Surya Kant's "cockroach" remark during a Supreme Court hearing that had inadvertently given the movement its defining symbol. A word intended to ridicule protesting students was instead embraced by them, becoming an identity around which a nationwide campaign would eventually take shape.Cockroach emojis flooded social media, memes appeared overnight, artists sketched caricatures, satirical posters circulated on campuses. Dipke transformed the insult into the Cockroach Janata Party, which began as a satirical social media page before emerging as the face of the student movement.Even when one of its social media accounts was taken down, it returned with another account titled "Cockroach is Back", carrying the tagline, "Cockroaches never die."