CJI Surya Kant's ‘cockroach’ comment back in focus as MP says ‘thanks’ amid CJP march

At heart of Sanjay Raut's post was a courtroom observation CJI Surya Kant made in mid-May; thereafter the Cockroach Janta Party came up as satire at first

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant's remark from May that used the words “cockroaches” and “parasites” for some sections of jobless youth was back in focus on Monday after Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut paid thanks to the CJI for the protest movement led by Cockroach Janta Party, a satirical outfit formed as a reaction to his comment.

“Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, my lord Suryakant ji. The credit for today's great movement goes to just this one person! For bringing the dead of the country back to life,” Raut posted on X.

Thousands of CJP supporters were stopped by security forces while attempting to march towards Parliament on the opening day of the Monsoon Session. The government did later speak to the leaders of the CJP, though a deadlock persisted over the demand to sack education minister Dharmendra Pradhan for the NEET-UG paper leak and other issues.

Raut also said, ahead of the ‘Sansad Chalo’ march, that the government had initially dismissed voices such as activist Sonam Wangchuk and CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke as minor distractions, “believing it could crush the ‘cockroaches’,” but that the movement had instead proven resilient and drawn support nationwide.

He then went on to post the message on X directed at the CJI, also tagging Wangchuk, who is in hospital, and Union home minister Amit Shah, with whom Pradhan met earlier in the day though details of the meeting were not public.

At the heart of Raut's post was a courtroom observation the CJI made in mid-May, during a hearing before a bench comprising him and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by advocate Sanjay Dubey seeking contempt proceedings for alleged delay at the Delhi High Court in implementing Supreme Court guidelines on designation of Senior Advocates. CJI Kant strongly criticised what he described as increasing, unnecessary attacks on the judiciary and the legal system.

“There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment or have any place in profession. Some of them become media, some of them become social media, RTI activists and other activists and they start attacking everyone,” the CJI observed during the hearing.

He also called such people “parasites of society”. He also said he wanted the CBI to verify law degrees he believed could be fraudulent in large numbers.

The remark went viral, and a day later, communications strategist Abhijeet Dipke launched the satirical Cockroach Janta Party — a play on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's name — whose Instagram following crossed the BJP's within days and has since grown into a broader youth protest movement.

CJI said he was misquoted

Two days after the remark surfaced, the CJI issued a clarification, saying he had been “misquoted by sections of the media” and that his criticism was directed only at those who had entered professions such as law “with the aid of fake and bogus degrees”.

Petitions were later subsequently filed in the Supreme Court seeking action over the alleged “commercial exploitation” of the CJI's courtroom remarks by the CJP on social media. When the matter was mentioned for urgent hearing on May 25, the CJI, heading a bench that also included Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi, declined to expedite it, telling counsel not to take the issue “so sentimentally” and noting there was “no grave urgency”.

The CJP has since grown on the ground too. On Monday, thousands of CJP supporters attempted to march to Parliament, prompting security forces to use tear gas and baton charges near Parliament Street, Shastri Bhawan and the Constitution Club after protesters allegedly breached barricades in the high-security zone.

Solidarity demonstrations were also held elsewhere, including in Nagpur, Lucknow and Mumbai, while Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned multiple times amid opposition protests inside the House.

Aarish Chhabra is an Associate Editor with the Hindustan Times online team, writing news reports and explanatory articles, besides overseeing coverage for the website. His career spans nearly two decades across India's most respected newsrooms in print, digital, and broadcast. He has reported, written, and edited across formats — from breaking news and live election coverage, to analytical long-reads and cultural commentary — building a body of work that reflects both editorial rigour and a deep curiosity about the society he writes for. Aarish studied English literature, sociology and history, besides journalism, at Panjab University, Chandigarh, and started his career in that city, eventually moving to Delhi. He is also the author of ‘The Big Small Town: How Life Looks from Chandigarh’, a collection of critical essays originally serialised as a weekly column in the Hindustan Times, examining the culture and politics of a city that is far more than its famous architecture — and, in doing so, holding up a mirror to modern India. In stints at the BBC, The Indian Express, NDTV, and Jagran New Media, he worked across formats and languages; mainly English, also Hindi and Punjabi. He was part of the crack team for the BBC Explainer project replicated across the world by the broadcaster. At Jagran, he developed editorial guides and trained journalists on integrity and content quality. He has also worked at the intersection of journalism and education. At the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, he developed a website that simplified academic research in management. At Bennett University's Times School of Media in Noida, he taught students the craft of digital journalism: from newsgathering and writing, to social media strategy and video storytelling. Having moved from a small town to a bigger town to a mega city for education and work, his intellectual passions lie at the intersection of society, politics, and popular culture — a perspective that informs both his writing and his view of the world. When not working, he is constantly reading long-form journalism or watching brainrot content, sometimes both at the same time.Read More