Interview | 'We exist to create a political cost for ignoring younger generation': CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke

Interview/ Abhijeet Dipke, founder, Cockroach Janta Party

Q/ The CJP began almost as a joke. When it suddenly turned into a mass campaign, what were the biggest challenges of managing something you had not planned for?

Honestly, the most profound challenge during the transition from a satire page into an online youth political movement was the sudden realisation that lakhs and crores of young people were feeling a sense of hope for the first time in many years. Carrying the weight of that collective hope and the burden of their expectations—even though it was entirely unintended on my part—was the initial hurdle I had to process and engage with.

Speaking directly with the youth, I quickly realised that this was no longer a personal choice; the movement had taken on a life of its own. There was an immense undercurrent of anger among the younger generation, and they chose to see the CJP as their vehicle for change.

Logistically, we started with absolutely no pre-existing structure, no back-end team and no formal organisation. To address this, we immediately floated a digital volunteer form and the response has been overwhelming: 45,000 individuals have already signed up to volunteer, eight lakh people have signed our petition, and over one million people have formally registered as members of the CJP. Our primary challenge now is structural—effectively engaging with these lakhs of individuals, integrating them into our organisation and converting this massive digital wave into a structured network of active, on-the-ground volunteers.

Q/ For now, your movement is against the paper leaks. If your demands are not met, what will be your future course of action?

Our current demand for the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is an immediate point of accountability, but it is not the sole anchor of the CJP. The CJP movement is fundamentally centred on a much broader mission: giving a credible platform to the burning concerns of India's youth.

It just so happens that in the last two months alone, nearly one crore students and job seekers across the country have been left demoralised, depressed and defeated by a thoroughly broken and collapsed education system. We are speaking about 22 lakh NEET aspirants, 16 lakh CUET-PG candidates, 17 lakh CBSE students and 40 lakh individuals appearing for the SSC GD. As the education minister for the last five years, Pradhan is directly responsible for this institutional failure. Tragically, six students who appeared for the NEET exam this year have committed suicide. Our demand for his resignation stems from the absolute conviction that these systemic tragedies will never stop unless accountability is fixed at the very top.

If our immediate demands are not met, our future course of action is to expand the scale of our agitation. A leadership that refuses to accept responsibility for ruining the future of crores of students has no moral authority to govern. We will continue to take this movement to every corner of India, intensifying our ground mobilisation until the establishment is forced to listen to the youth.

Q/ Your critics on both sides seem to distrust you—some in the opposition see echoes of the Anna Hazare movement and fear you may inadvertently help the BJP, while some in the BJP view your campaign as politically motivated or even anti-national.

For too long in this country, any mass movement or public mobilisation has been systematically demonised and smeared, with bad faith aspersions cast by those in the establishment simply to discourage common people from associating with them. But the historical reality is that our very nation was formed as an independent country through a mass movement. When the Emergency was imposed, it was a massive grassroots mobilisation that saved our republic and restored our democracy. Indeed, many of the constitutional rights we enjoy today as citizens are the direct result of historic mass movements.

We should never demean or dismiss organic public mobilisation with conspiratorial theories. Such distractions are merely convenient escape routes for traditional politicians who lack the courage to engage with the very real, justified anger brewing among India's youth. We don't need to convince the establishment of our legitimacy; our alignment is strictly with the millions of students demanding accountability.

Q/ A year from now, what would success for the CJP look like—a political party, a youth movement or something else altogether?

Funnily, the ultimate success of the CJP lies in its own irrelevance. The only reason the CJP exists today is that the current political establishment across the board does not take the concerns of the youth seriously. If mainstream political forces were already prioritising the future of students and job seekers, this movement would never have been born.

Therefore, a year from now, success will not be measured by our growth as a formal political entity or the expansion of our banner. True success will look like a fundamental shift in the national political discourse, away from Hindu-Muslim issues that have stalled any meaningful progress for our people, to where every single political party is forced to place youth-centric issues like education and employment at the absolute forefront of their agendas. We exist to create a political cost for ignoring the younger generation; once the establishment genuinely begins to serve the youth, our purpose will be fulfilled.

Q/ Many say you have links with the AAP and you continue to work at their behest.

My prior association with the AAP has never been a secret.... I did work with the party several years ago. However, following that period, I moved to the United States to pursue my master's degree, and I have had absolutely no organisational or professional association with it since.

The CJP is a distinct phenomenon born out of a fresh, immediate crisis facing India's students. Let me be absolutely clear: neither I nor any of the core individuals driving the CJP on the ground have anything to do with any political party. This is a standalone, decentralised movement operated entirely by independent youth who are answering to no one but their peers.

Q/ Has the BJP or the Congress or the AAP reached out to you?

No political party has reached out to us in any official or formal capacity regarding the movement. We are not talking to anyone. That’s not what our supporters want from us. They are with us because we speak for them without aligning with any party.