On May 15, 2026, CJI Surya Kant made a verbal observation during a Supreme Court hearing regarding employment in the legal profession.
“Thanks for calling us cockroaches. If he hadn’t called us cockroaches, I wouldn’t have come to India. This movement would never have started,” Abhijeet Dipke said at Jantar Mantar after Dharmendra Pradhan resigned as Union education minister.
On May 15, 2026, CJI Surya Kant made a verbal observation during a Supreme Court hearing regarding employment in the legal profession. The Chief Justice reportedly remarked that “there are youngsters like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment and don’t have any place in the profession.”
Although the CJI later clarified that he had been misquoted and that his remarks were directed at people with fake degrees, the perceived insult sparked the birth of the Cockroach Janta Party.
The movement shook the government with nationwide protests, culminating in the education minister’s resignation.
