Ever since the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) movement gained popularity, its founder, Abhijeet Dipke, has claimed that attempts have been made to suppress their social media accounts. After the latest mishap surrounding CJP’s Instagram account, actor and comedian Vir Das opined that such incidents only ‘legitimise’ the movement further. (Also Read: ‘Why is Cockroach Janata Party withheld in India?’: Chinmayi, Vir Das, Prakash Raj react as their X account faces issue)
Vir Das reacts to Cockroach Janata Party’s social media woes
On Saturday, Vir took to X (formerly Twitter) to say it was an ‘utterly dumb move’ to suppress CJP’s social media accounts. He wrote, “Whether the cockroach janta party is a legitimate movement or not, is not the question. Time will tell. But the traction they received, the sentiment behind it, the rhetoric from the youth, all legitimate. And if all that wasn’t legit enough, the utterly dumb move of shutting down their accounts legitimised everything.”
“Vir sir, the Cockroach Janta Party has already achieved what most political parties can’t in decades, they made ‘cockroach’ sound like a revolutionary title,” commented one X user, agreeing with Vir, while another wrote, “Stupid to disable the accounts. It would have died by itself in another couple of months, like all other fade.” Not everyone agreed, with one X user claiming, “Shutting them down was the right move, no sane person pay heed to such drama.”
What does the Cockroach Janata Party claim?
This comes minutes after CJP founder Abhijeet claimed on X, “Crackdown on Cockroach Janta Party. – Instagram page hacked. – My personal Instagram hacked. – Twitter account withheld – Back up account also taken down.” He also added, “Please note that we currently do not have access to any of our platforms. Any post made after this should not be considered an official statement from the Cockroach Janta Party.” The movement was founded May 16 by 30-year-old political strategist Abhijeet in response to a remark by the Chief Justice of India (CJI), Surya Kant.
Earlier this week, the founder also posted a screenshot of the CJP X account being withheld. His caption read: “As expected Cockroach Janta Party’s account has been withheld in India.” The screenshot shows that the account was withheld in response to a ‘legal demand’. Vir had re-posted it, writing, “It’s giving full Streisand effect.” The Streisand Effect is a psychological and social phenomenon in which an attempt to hide, censor, or remove information inadvertently makes it much more widely known.
Vir debuted as a director this year and also starred in Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos, produced by Aamir Khan. The film can be streamed on Netflix.
