Site, web accounts blocked, says Cockroach Janta Party founder

NEW DELHI: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), the online satirical movement, claimed another setback on Saturday after founder Abhijeet Dipke said the outfit's official website had been taken down by the Centre, days after its main X handle was withheld in India following a legal demand.

However, till the filing of this report there had been no statement from the Centre and a counter-narrative trending on social media that Dipke was playing the "victim card" by taking down his own website. Dipke didn't respond to messages and DMs.

Dipke alleged that the website was pulled down after the movement rapidly gained traction among young users online and amid a petition drive over the NEET-UG paper leak. "The govt has taken down our iconic website," he wrote, adding that "10 lakh cockroaches" had registered and "6 lakh cockroaches" had signed a petition seeking Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation. In a second post, Dipke sharpened the attack on the Centre, asking, "Why is the govt so scared of cockroaches?" He added that the episode was exposing India's youth to what he described as "dictatorial behaviour".

In another X post, he said the party's Instagram page, his personal Instagram account and a backup X handle had also been hit. "You can hack and withhold the accounts but you cannot hack this movement," Dipke wrote, insisting the campaign would continue online.

According to sources, the original CJP handle on X was withheld in India after the ministry of electronics and IT acted under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act on Intelligence Bureau inputs citing sovereignty and national security concerns. Neither X nor the ministries of home affairs and information technology made any official confirmation.

X's own policy says an "account withheld" notice reflects action taken in response to a valid legal demand or local law. The party soon launched a handle, Cockroach is Back, after the restriction.

The viral, meme-driven movement emerged after controversy over remarks attributed to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, which triggered online outrage before he clarified that his comments were aimed at people using "fake and bogus degrees", not unemployed youth. On Saturday, BJP's Rajeev Chandrasekhar alleged the CJP trend was part of a cross-border "influence operation", a charge Dipke denies.