Interpreting the ‘rise’ of the Cockroach Janta Party

In just four days, a formation in India calling itself the ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ has accumulated a following that established political organisations often spend years building. Meme pages, Instagram reels, and semi-ironic political formations began aggregating at remarkable speed, prompting comparisons with Bangladesh and Nepal , where youth-led mobilisations appeared capable of unsettling entrenched political arrangements through digitally synchronised anger. Increasingly, many are wondering whether this is the future of politics itself: reactive and emotionally charged, and organised less around long-term political structures than around symbolic enemies and collective outrage. The excitement is understandable because younger people increasingly feel disconnected from institutional politics and representative structures that appear distant from their lived anxieties about work, aspiration, insecurity, and exhaustion. Social media allows individuals who otherwise experience themselves as politically isolated to suddenly participate in moments of collective emotional intensity. A meme or slogan can create the feeling of political participation within hours. Yet, the deeper question is whether politics organised primarily through synchronised outrage can sustain itself beyond moments of emotional intensity.