New Delhi: Even as the country continues to reel from the high of the Cockroach Janta Party-led student protests, a flood of new “janta parties” has begun appearing across social media. Some are clearly satirical, others promote specific political or social causes, and many blur the line between parody and advocacy.
One of the most prominent is E20 Janta Party, which has amassed over 277,000 followers on Instagram. Campaigning against the Centre’s ethanol fuel-blending policy, the page says the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan is “just the beginning”, adding that Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari is next. Riding on the momentum of the CJP protests, several state-specific pages have also spawned.
Far larger is Reservation Hatao Andolan, which amassed over 4.5 million followers within a few days. The page campaigns for the removal of caste-based reservations and the caste census, positioning itself as a parallel movement to the student protests. Similar accounts have since emerged, including General Janta Party and Anti Reservation Janta Party, both of which advocate against reservations while borrowing the visual language and branding popularised by the CJP.
A coalition of lions and kabootars
The trend has also produced pages taking the opposite position. Jatiwad Hatao Movement, with around 129,000 followers, argues that casteism, not reservation, is the root problem and that eliminating caste discrimination should be the priority. Another account, Casteism Hatao Movement, carries a similar message.
Not all of these pages are centred on serious political issues. Bhagwa Janta Party, which describes itself as a “non-political party”, mocks the student movement by referring to CJP as “Cancer Janta Party”. Others lean entirely into absurdist humour, with pages such as Daaru Janta Party, advocating greater acceptance of recreational drinking, alongside Lion Janta Party, Kabootar Janta Party, and Lal Hit Janta Party.
The trend has also crossed borders. Several accounts modelled on the original format, including Cockroach Janta Party Pakistan and Cockroach Janta Party Bangladesh, have surfaced on social media, adapting the meme to local political contexts.
The “janta party” has evolved from a single student-led protest identity into a replicable internet format. And it is now being used to campaign, satirise, provoke, and build online communities around almost any issue.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)
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