Odisha Literary Festival 2026: Opinions differ on CJP’s political links

BHUBANESWAR: The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) movement was apolitical, said senior journalist and former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Ashutosh at the Odisha Literary Festival here on Saturday.

Attending a session on ‘Ideology vs Skepticism: What do Young People Believe’, moderated by journalist and author Ravi Shankar, Ashutosh reckoned that AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, who had publicly backed the movement, was not the face of the CJP. He, however, acknowledged that some CJP members had past affiliations with AAP.

“Usually, youths take the words of politicians with a pinch of salt, but they have complete faith in the judiciary. They were agitated after Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant’s cockroach remark. The movement then significantly escalated due to the frustration of youths over NEET paper leak and unemployment,” he said.

Ashutosh further said the CJP protest was different from social activist Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement. CJP protest was more direct and focused on confronting the government for specific resignations and demands, whereas Hazare aimed for broader systemic change, he said. Editor of RSS mouthpiece ‘Organiser’ Prafulla Ketkar, however, said the CJI had clarified that his cockroach and parasite remarks were misquoted and directed at people holding fake degrees rather than the nation’s youths.

When CJP organised demonstrations at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, only a handful of protesters were present, including social activists who were found to be recording reels. In fact, to mobilise supporters and shape public opinion, digital tools were used while social media algorithms as well as external agendas amplified the movement’s reach, he said.

Ketkar alleged that CJP was nothing but AAP 2.0. The youths of the country are shaping the future through start-ups and other initiatives. The current generation does not want to be defined by anybody, he said. The term cockroach was highlighted as a strategic choice by the movement. Similar to other global youth protests, the activists have turned a derogatory label into a badge of honour, he said.

Ketkar, however, conceded that the National Testing Agency (NTA) needed major reforms to fix recurring security failures, paper leaks, and administrative lapses in major examinations like NEET-UG and UGC-NET.