An Indian youth political movement organization that uses a cockroach as its mascot and has become popular on social platforms plans to hold a demonstration in New Delhi on Saturday, ushering in the first offline test of its popularity. The "Cockroach People's Party (CJP)" went online in mid-May, and its Instagram account exceeded 22 million followers in just a few weeks.
MPs from Apu's political party staged a protest over the leak of undergraduate examination papers during a meeting of the Delhi Town Hall in New Delhi, India, on May 25, 2026.
The virtual party was founded on May 16 by Abhijit Deepka, a student at Boston University and a political PR consultant. It originated from Suriya Kant, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of India, calling some unemployed youths "parasites" and "cockroaches" during his court hearing.
The party claims to have more than 1 million registered members, and its official website isA platform for the unemployed and frustrated groups to speak out.
However, industry experts said that the organization lacks substantial public base offline; the scale of participation in this weekend's demonstrations will determine whether this movement is just a complaint among the people, or a major risk event that is enough to disturb the capital market.
Similar online and offline movements led by frustrated youths have erupted in Nepal, Bangladesh, and most recently, Indonesia. Many of these activities disrupted the operation of the real economy and destabilized the political situation. Some incidents directly led to the resignation of the ruling party.
Rima Bhattacharya, head of Asia research at Vesk Mapcroft, said in an interview with CNBC: For investors, it is crucial for governments to maintain public confidence and convince the younger generation that future economic income will be better than that of their parents.
She added: It is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain this confidence across Asia.
Bhattacharya analyzed that the core of this movement is the general dissatisfaction among the people that the demographic dividend has not been realized as expected: after more than ten years of policy promises, the effects of India's demographic dividend have been seriously divided.
Affected by the Iranian conflict that drags down energy supply, the Indian economy is under pressure: the rupee continues to weaken against the US dollar, and concerns about slowing economic growth and rising inflation continue to rise. In India, which has the largest youth population in the world,Employment problem has become the country’s number one pain point.
Global brokerage Bernstein warned Prime Minister Modi in an open letter in April that India's employment crisis continues to worsen; the implementation of generative artificial intelligence may further impact employment demand in India's IT industry, and the number of new jobs in the manufacturing industry has not improved significantly.
Other major economies in Asia are also affected by the economic downturn and weakening business confidence, and private enterprises' recruitment demand has shrunk.
Saturday Parade: Offline Exam
The Cockroach Party's major social accounts publish daily posts focusing on livelihood issues such as lack of infrastructure and youth unemployment. The core demands of this Saturday's march are directed at the recent large-scale leaks and errors in the entrance exams for middle and high schools organized by India, which have affected millions of candidates.
A spokesman for the Cockroach Party stated at a press conference on Wednesday: The youth group represented by the party demands that the relevant administrative departments take responsibility; the current system is full of shortcomings, and people express their dissatisfaction by following the party on social platforms. The party formally appealed: India's Education Minister Dalmedra Pradhan resigned.
As early as May 17, Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi posted an article on the X platform denouncing the chaos in marking, saying bluntly that the Minister of Education has failed students of all ages in India.
Ashok Malik, partner of the think tank Asia Group, commented: The impact of this examination fraud scandal is so severe that it can be called a major governance crisis faced by the Indian government in the past 12 years. He also mentioned that the Indian government has not been effective enough in creating jobs, but so far, various people's livelihood issues have not shaken Modi's public support.
Just last month, Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party achieved a historic victory in the West Bengal election. Even though the domestic economy was under pressure, the ruling party's ruling foundation was further strengthened.
Malik pointed out that the stability of Modi's rule is still strong; but if the number of attendees at Saturday's march exceeds one million, the incident will have enough weight and capital market investors will need to be highly vigilant.
The last time the Modi government faced large-scale nationwide protests was the implementation of the 2020 agricultural reform bill. After a year of continuous demonstrations by farmers across the country, Modi repealed the controversial bill in November 2021. Since then, Modi was successfully re-elected as prime minister for a third term, but the ruling party lost its absolute majority in parliament.
Ronojoy Sen, a senior researcher at the Institute of South Asia Studies, believes that India has a vast territory and a complex social structure. It is difficult to cause large-scale political unrest based on online popularity alone. If any political party wants to form substantial political influence, it must take root offline and complete on-the-ground popular mobilization. It is difficult for the Cockroach Party to achieve success solely by relying on the Internet to build momentum.