look news india
These days, a ‘party’ with a strange name on social media is giving sleepless nights to political veterans. The name is ‘Cockroach Janata Party’ (CJP). This ‘party’, which came into existence after a sharp comment by Supreme Court CJI Surya Kant, created such a storm in the digital world that it left behind even established parties like Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress in terms of followers on Instagram. But now there has been a big U-turn in this matter. The Government of India has completely banned the official X (formerly Twitter) handle of ‘Cockroach Janata Party’ in the country. However, just a few hours after this ban, a new account became active, which immediately wrote “Cockroaches never die!” Let us know what happened overnight that the government had to take this big step.
Input of intelligence agency IB and action of Section 69(A) of IT Act
The reason behind the sudden blocking of the X handle of ‘Cockroach Janata Party’ is a confidential input from the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the country’s top intelligence agency. According to sources, on Thursday the IB had handed over some very sensitive inputs to the government. The inputs warned that this social media handle could pose a threat to the security and sovereignty of the country.
According to an English newspaper report, the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had received clear input from the IB that provocative content was being continuously posted through this account. After this, the Ministry took a tough stance and issued an order to immediately close this account in India under Section 69 (A) of the Information Technology Act (IT Act) 2000. Let us tell you that in case of threat to the sovereignty, integrity and security of the country, the government can ban any digital content or account under this section.
Ban imposed in India but ‘followers’ increased in foreign countries, new account also ready
Even though the old X handle of ‘Cockroach Janata Party’ is no longer visible in India, efforts to stop it in the internet world do not seem to be completely successful. This handle is still fully active in other countries and its screenshots are being continuously shared by Indian users from there.
The surprising thing is that when the order to block this account came, it had around 90 thousand followers, but as soon as the news of the ban spread, its number of followers in other countries crossed 2 lakhs. Not only this, within a few hours of the main account being blocked in India, another new backup account of CJP was created, which is becoming increasingly viral on social media.
1.8 crore followers on Instagram, beats even BJP-Congress!
The government may have used scissors on X (Twitter), but the dominance of this ‘party’ on Instagram is no less than a miracle. The number of followers of ‘Cockroach Janata Party’ on Instagram has crossed 1.8 crore (18 million). This figure has surprised even political analysts as this number is much more than the official followers of many big mainstream political parties of the country. However, there is a strong discussion in the corridors that after X, its Instagram account may also be banned in India soon.
Who is its founder Abhijeet Dipke and what is the whole controversy?
Now the question arises that who started this ‘Cockroach Janata Party’ and why? The name of the person who started this unique digital movement is Abhijeet Dipke, who is originally from Maharashtra. Abhijeet has claimed that he is currently in Boston, America and is operating it from there.
The root of this entire controversy is a comment by Supreme Court CJI Surya Kant. In fact, during the hearing of a case, the CJI had compared unemployed youth and some activists to ‘cockroaches’. The CJI had said that some youth are like cockroaches, who neither get any employment nor do they have any fixed profession. Such people either go into the field of media or become social media activists, and some become RTI activists.
“Is it wrong to raise voice against the government?”
The youth considered this comment of the CJI as an attack on their self-esteem and in protest against this, Abhijeet Dipke started a symbolic and satire page named ‘Cockroach Janata Party’. After the ban, Founder Abhijeet Dipke gave a sharp reaction and said that the youth and common people will have to raise their voice against the government. He raised the question that what did the government find wrong in this satire and protest that it took the decision to ban it outright?
It is noteworthy that when this comment of CJI Surya Kant started getting sharp reactions across the country, then the CJI had also given clarification on this. He had clarified that his comment was not for all the youth, rather he had said this only in the context of ‘fake degree holders’ and blackmailing elements. However, after this action of the government in the digital space, a new debate has erupted regarding freedom of expression and national security.
