From a Boston dorm to fame

Three months ago Abhijeet Dipke, 30, was watching documentaries alone in his room while finishing a master's at Boston University. Now crowds mob him for handshakes.

“Two-three months ago, nobody knew me.”

Not a total newcomer

Before the US, he spent three years working with the Aam Aadmi Party, an opposition party born from an anti-corruption movement. The cameras don't rattle him.

A judge called them roaches

Chief Justice Surya Kant likened jobless young people to cockroaches. He later said he meant only those using fake degrees, but the clarification landed too late.

One post while gaming

On 16 May, mid video game, Dipke posted: what if all cockroaches come together? Tens of thousands replied.

“What if all cockroaches come together?”

Naming the joke into a party

He and a few former colleagues launched the satirical Cockroach Janta Party, a pun on both the judge's insult and Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party.

Blocked as a security threat

The CJP website and X account went dark in India under Section 69A of the IT Act. Officials told media it was national security. The ministry never answered the BBC.

He flew home anyway

Being branded a threat by his own government is what brought him back. A lawyer had warned he could be detained without charge under the National Security Act.

“I love my country, just not in the way that you want.”

Sleepless nights, a crying mother

His mother begged him not to return, fearing jail or an attack. He told her backing out would make him a laughing stock to everyone following the CJP.

“I won't lie. I was afraid. I had sleepless nights.”

Why this one stuck

Earlier protests over the citizenship law and farm laws were painted as sectarian or anti-India. That smear found less purchase this time.

The jobs math is brutal

A government report found just over 8% of graduates get work matching their skills. Graduate unemployment sits at 29.1%, nine times the rate for people who never attended school.

A leaked exam paper

The national medical entrance exam was scrapped after a question-paper leak. More than 20 students were reported to have died by suicide afterwards, and the anger crossed caste and religious lines.

“Most of them were complaining about the paper leak.”

Hundreds, then thousands

The first sit-in at Delhi's Jantar Mantar on 6 June drew only hundreds. Trust built as they stayed put, helped by activist Sonam Wangchuk's 26-day hunger strike.

“But the longer we sat, the more people started trusting us.”

Tear gas changed everything

On 20 July, police met a march on parliament with batons, tear gas and pellet guns. Dozens of protesters were hurt, the government says dozens of police too, and the images pulled thousands more in.

Modi's videos backfired

On two nights running, the prime minister promised tough action on exam leaks. Protesters wanted one thing he didn't offer: the education minister gone.

The minister resigned

On 25 July, Dharmendra Pradhan stepped down, citing anti-national elements. Dipke heard on stage, dropped to his knees, then punched the air.

“We have done it.”

Now, rural school toilets

The CJP's next campaign targets government schools: one had no toilet for girls and expired food packets in the kitchen, another had cracks through floor, walls and ceiling.

“Children in rural India should at least get a dignified education.”

The hard part starts now

Critics say the CJP dodges issues facing Muslims and lower-caste Indians to keep Hindu support. Dipke, a Dalit, rejects that, and says he wants cultural change rather than elections.

“We want a cultural transformation where people understand their rights.”