Cockroach is not a bad word or an abuse. A search in Wikipedia will reveal that cockroaches have retained their basic body structure for roughly 200 million years — that is 199,700,000 years earlier than Homo sapiens first emerged in Africa about 300,000 years ago. Cockroaches have a prior claim over humans to the right to exist in this world.Science Encyclopedia tells us that cockroaches do not bite or attack people, unlike people who attack cockroaches. Of course, cockroaches carry bacteria, transmit diseases and trigger allergies. Humans also carry bacteria, transmit diseases and trigger allergies (especially among members of rival groups). Some humans consider cockroaches as ‘creepy’, not unlike some humans who consider other humans as ‘creepy’.AdvertisementStirred and shakenSome days ago, a high dignitary stirred the cockroaches from their slumber. Bless him, he clarified promptly that he was referring to fake lawyers with fake degrees roaming around the courts. Such fake lawyers deserve to be called bad names but, I submit respectfully, not a cockroach. Once stirred, the cockroaches remain stirred (like ‘once a mortgage, always a mortgage’). A few stirred cockroaches have founded a political party, started an X handle, created a website and opened an Instagram handle. By last count, the handle had over 22 million followers.The stirred cockroaches retaliated. The consequence was the humans were stirred and shaken. I suspect the humans are shaking in their Kolhapuri chappals. If not, why would the highest executive authority of India with Armed Forces that have 1.45 million active personnel in uniform, 4,200 main battle tanks, 580 fighter aircraft, 270 naval vessels, 2 aircraft carriers and hundreds of nuclear weapons, and a Rs 2,86,588 crore bonanza from RBI in its kitty, fear a mere X handle opened by a 30-year-old Abhijeet Dipke who is the flag-bearer of the digital-only Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), and ask X to close the handle?Mr Dipke is in a far away land pursuing a Masters degree in, phew, ‘public relations’ (not the dangerous AI) under the care of our frenemy, Mr Donald Trump. The website set out CJP’s goals: “we own the identity of the cockroach — if that is what it takes for young people to be heard.” With its tagline as ‘Voice of the lazy and unemployed’, the CJP claims to represent the people “the system forgot to count”. He wants the unemployed, lazy, chronically online and who can rant professionally to join his party. He is inspired by Gandhi, Ambedkar and Nehru. CJP’s manifesto makes one laugh and think; the usual political party’s manifesto makes one sleep.Advertisement“It is the cause…”I think CJP is counting on the widespread disappointment, distress and frustration among people, especially among the youth including young women. The causes are:Unemployment: The unemployment rate is 5.2 %; youth unemployment rate is 16-17%. The Work Force is 64.3 crore and the Labour Force Participation Rate is, at best, 60%. The remaining 40% or about 25 crore are, pardon me, cockroaches. If the CJP gets all the cockroach votes, it will form the government. (In the 2024 LS elections, BJP got 23.6 crore votes and the Congress 13.7 crore votes).Petrol & Diesel: Mobility is the life-spring of cockroaches. The high fuel prices limit the mobility of cockroaches. The price of petrol in Delhi is Rs 102.12 and the price of diesel is Rs 95.20. For voting for the BJP, residents of Kolkata have been rewarded with prices of Rs 113.51 and Rs 99.82, respectively.Jobs in factories: Cockroaches are, by definition, lazy. Since they do not get up early every morning to attend the neighbourhood shakha, they will never be employed by the government. The next best is a factory job. According to MoSPI, there are 260,061 registered factories in India. The estimate of the number of jobs in factories is 1.95 crore. Many jobs will be redundant because of AI, and the 25 crore cockroaches will never get a factory job. Hence, the frustration.Family support: Cockroaches are supported by families, especially mothers, in return for the 5 kg of free grain that they bring to the family every month. Since the household debt is 42% of GDP and household savings are only 5-6% of GDP, cockroaches receive little cash support from families, and are desperately cashless.you may likeViksit Bharat billionaire: Cockroaches hoped to become billionaires in Viksit Bharat. However, despite 12 years of BJP rule, the number of billionaires is rising at a painfully slow pace. The latest count is 205, and there are 25 crore cockroaches in the line waiting to become billionaires. They are also waiting for the Rs 15 lakh of achhe din aayenge promised in 2014.C-EA dashes hopesThe cockroaches turned to the Cockroaches Economic Adviser. The C-EA’s advice was sombre: “The trade deficit will widen significantly in FY27, as will the current account deficit. Inflation risks are tilted to the upside. A below-normal monsoon adds an agricultural dimension to a complex supply shock. The task of attracting stable long-term capital — through credible tax policy, regulatory predictability, and reduced friction for investors — intensifies in these conditions” (The Indian Express, May 23, 2026).Catastrophe is foretold.The cockroaches may decide that the only way to prevent the catastrophe is to seek a peaceful transfer of power, with the aid of CEC, from humans to cockroaches.