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Fringey Mini: Cockroach Politics · Journey to the Fringe

• 0:00
  I thought I would do something, well this article
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  is kind of recent from where we're recording,
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  a nice change in, anyhow, I thought this would
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  be something fun -ish to cover. I don't know
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  if you've heard about this, Taylor. This is from
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  the BBC, articles 21st of May, 2026. This is
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  something that's currently happening right now,
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  though not in our neck of the woods, so I don't
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  know how prevalent it is in your day -to -day
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  news. This article is titled, India has a new
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  political supers - a cockroach oh I did not know
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  about this yeah so well it goes on so let's listen
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  Indian politics has acquired an unusual mascot
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  the cockroach a satirical collective that takes
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  inspiration from the insect stubborn reviled
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  and considered indestructible has attracted millions
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  of online followers and mainstream media attention
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  in less than a week, making even veteran politicians
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  sit up and take notice. The cockroach was thrust
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  into the spotlight last week after controversial
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  comments made by India's Chief Justice Surya
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  Kant. During a hearing, he allegedly compared
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  unemployed young people drifting towards journalism
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  and activism with cockroaches and parasites.
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  He later clarified that he was referring specifically
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  to people with quote fake and bogus degrees and
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  quote not India's youth more broadly but by then
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  the comments had already spread widely online
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  triggering outrage jokes and a humorous political
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  idea called the cockroach janta party cockroaches
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  people's party or a CJP the name is a parody
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  of Prime Minister's Narendra Modi's Bharatiya
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  janta party BJP which has been in power since
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  2014 critics and rights groups have alleged that
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  press freedom and civil liberties have declined
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  since then, which the BJP denies. Yeah, they
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  would, but they're kind of not the best. A lot
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  of racial undertones with them. Really? I didn't
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  know that. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they're very anti
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  -Islamic. Oh, I think there's a lot of stuff
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  like that in India. The CJP is not a formal political
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  party, but an online movement built around political
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  satire. Its tongue -in -cheek membership criteria
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  include being unemployed, lazy, chronically online,
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  and having, quote, the ability to rant professionally,
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  unquote. It was created by Abhijit Dipki, a political
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  communication strategist and student at Boston
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  University. He says the idea came as a joke.
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  Before moving to the US, he worked with the Aam
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  Admi Party, AAP, a political organization that
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  emerged from an anti -corruption movement in
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  India more than a decade ago and is known for
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  its strong social media presence. I thought we
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  should all come together, maybe just start a
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  platform and quote, he told BBC Marathi. What
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  followed was much bigger than he expected. Within
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  days, the CJP amassed tens of thousands of signups
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  through a Google form, inspired the hashtag,
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  main be cockroach. I too am a cockroach. And
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  endorsements from opposition leaders. Opposition
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  leaders. On Wednesday, top opposition leader
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  Akhilesh Yadav posted on X. BJP v. CJP. The discourse
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  also spilled offline, with young volunteers turning
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  up drastic cockroaches at clean -up drives and
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  protests in a theatrical embrace of the label.
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  On Thursday, the CJP's Instagram account crossed
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  10 million followers, overtaking the official
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  account of the BJP, widely described as the world's
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  largest political party by membership, which
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  has around 8 .7 million Instagram followers.
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  However, the CJP GDP's X account with more than
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  200 ,000 followers is currently not visible in
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  India, with people trying to view it being told
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  that it has been withheld in response to illegal
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  demand. The pace and scale of the CJP's rise
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  has taken many by surprise, but there's little
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  evidence so far that this will spill over into
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  political change on the ground in India. Although
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  the CJP has outpaced political parties on social
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  media, the BJP and the opposition congress remain
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  the country's dominant political forces. With
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  millions of active members nationwide, still
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  the CJP's momentum continues to grow. This does
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  keep going. There's actually been something happening
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  recently. like in the last couple of days I believe
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  there was a big protest but I thought it was
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  kind of cool how much traction the satirical
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  cockroach political party movement is getting
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  and also at the same time I think it's a little
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  disappointing that it's not like it's satirical
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  it's not like actually well yeah and the guy
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  who created it it said he was in the US wasn't
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  it yeah didn't say that but there was a big protest
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  having to do with cockroach party in india just
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  recently of course i didn't read you that one
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  because i thought i would share more about that's
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  too soon the movement yeah it's too soon you
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  needed to know the background information first
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  it kind of reminds me a little bit of the birds
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  the birds aren't real people that's it birds
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  aren't real i was about to call them yeah well
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  and i feel like they could merge us from just
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  birds aren't real to birds aren't real cockroaches
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  are forever or something like that yeah i do
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  like that it seems as though the cockroach what's
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  going on with the cockroach is a little bit more
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  politically motivated without being politically
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  it's weird yeah it almost feels like i don't
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  know if like in the last decade western english
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  -speaking countries decided to go with like the
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  avocado toast party it's true yep for comments
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  made by the rich like denigrating us yeah like
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  i would love for this to have been like an actual
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  something that meant a little bit more than just
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  a satirical movement that's not doing anything
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  to politics but alas here we are it will have
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  an impact india has a very weird and hard to
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  understand political system just because it's
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  such a massive country and like such diverse
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  groups that are involved within it I'm pretty
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  sure they have a few communist parties at the
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  head in several provinces. Yeah But Modi is he's
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  kind of a Trumpy guy. I'm almost their equivalent
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  of a politician Yeah, it is very interesting
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  and there's always like those big farmer protests
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  whenever these protests happen They're always
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  the world's largest protest ever because there's
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  a billion people there and it also reminds me
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  a little bit of the rhinoceros party in Canada
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  Chelsea I don't know if you're familiar with
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  them. They've been around for ever and it is
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  a joke political party for the sake of a joke.
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  Like, they ran on repealing the laws of gravity
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  and things like that. Oh, and they're also behind
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  the Alberta Separatist movement, right? They
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  are pure joke. They are joke for the sake of
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  joke and not satire or irony. The Alberta Separatist
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  movement is very real, even though it sounds
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  like a joke. Yeah, it sure does. But yeah, that's
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  more awkward humor with the Alberta Separatist
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  stuff. Anyhow, you guys got 48 hours. Look into
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  none of that stuff. It's either too complicated
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  or too dumb to worry about. Bye.