India swats cockroach movement over 'national security'

This blog has now closed, but read on to catch up with the top headlines that got India talking on Friday, May 22:

Tired of missing our real-time updates? Click here to add us as a Preferred Source on Google. Then tap the "Star" or "Preferred" to keep DW News at the top of your feed.

CJP should give list of 'concrete,' 'serious' demands: BJP spokesperson tells DW

Responding to the meteoric rise of the parody Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) online, the national spokesperson of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said she hoped "they don't just have angst to express, but something more serious."

The CJP was born as satirical criticism of the Chief Justice of India (CJI), who likened some of India's youth to "parasites" and "cockroaches" while hearing a case in court.

BJP spokesperson Shazia Ilmi, speaking to DW, said, "Those are his words and maybe it has offended a lot of people. One does understand the sentiment behind those who feel that they must express themselves."

However, Ilmi pointed out that CJP Founder Abhijeet Dipke had previously been a member of former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) . It is one of India's major opposition parties, often critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Dipke has denied any involvement with AAP at present. In a recent interview with an Indian media outlet, he said he was not trying to hide his past.

Dipke, through the CJP's account, has called for the resignation of India's Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, even launching a petition.

That’s over the cancelation of India's nationwide medical entrance test. The 2026 NEET exam was canceled after over 2.2 million students had taken it, over allegations of leaked question papers.

"It is very much the prerogative of the Cabinet now as to how it has to be dealt with,” Ilmi said about the resignation demand.

However, “considering the support it [CJP] gets from Arvind Kejriwal and the fact that the leader of this party has worked with Aam Aadmi Party, I just hope it's a genuine concern," Ilmi said.

"Right now, it seems a political thing against the BJP government. While we all know that these leaks have been happening all throughout. Lalu Prasad Yadav was at Rashtriya Janata Dal, Ashok Gehlot was in Congress," Ilmi said, naming Indian politicians from opposition parties who saw leaked question papers when they were in power.

"Now that they have some resonance, I wish their ask was more comprehensive. Bigger, positive, pro-action, to ensure that these leaks do not happen," she said. "We are asking for the sacking of a minister. Seems like a political ask," she added.

When asked about the CJP's repeated allegations that the BJP has been trying to hack into its Instagram account, Ilmi said: "BJP media cell cannot hack. That makes one doubt them [CJP] and eclipses their credibility."

"And they would seem like they are prompted by Aam Aadmi Party or Congress," she said.

IN DEPTH: Can the Quad stay relevant to boost Indo-Pacific security?

Foreign ministers from the US, India, Japan and Australia — the four nations that make up the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, better known as the Quad — are set to meet in New Delhi over three days from Sunday to discuss Indo-Pacific security, energy supplies and emerging technologies.

The meeting comes as China continues to test geopolitical and security boundaries in the region.

But it's another issue, which is not on the agenda, that looms large over the gathering: how to keep the alliance alive and relevant in an ever more challenging geopolitical landscape and an increasingly assertive China.

Read the full DW Asia report on the Quad meeting in India here.

Two Indian climbers die on Mount Everest after scaling summit

Two Indian climbers lost their lives in Nepal when they were descending through Everest's "death zone," after having successfully scaled the world's largest peak.

The Press Trust of India reported that the climbers suffered severe exhaustion and medical complications during their descent.

As per Nepal's Expedition Operators Association secretary general Rishi Bhandari, rescue teams and Sherpa guides made their efforts to save both climbers under extremely harsh conditions.

A record number of 274 climbers reached the summit of Mount Everest on Wednesday from Nepal side (South Base Camp) in a single day after the climbing season started late.

2026 is expected to see record number of climbs on Mount Everest with the authorities in Nepal issuing 493 permits to scale the mountain.

Blocking CJP's X handle gives it recognition, expert tells DW

The Indian government's bid to ban the Cockroach Janta Party's (CJP) account on X "has done more damage than damage control," Sundeep Narwani, co-founder of India-based AI research firm Narrative Research Lab.

Narwani is an expert in tracking social media trends and sentiments using AI and was previously affiliated with the Aam Aadmi Party, a key opposition party to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"With a new handle coming up and gaining traction, it has done more damage than damage control. It is worthwhile to notice that Meta hasn't agreed to government requests," Narwani said, presuming the government has also asked Meta to block the movement's official Instagram handle.

The CJP had about 200,000 followers on X when its account was blocked. Meanwhile, its Instagram handle has seen a meteoric rise to 19.6 million followers [as of Friday].

"The Twitter ban doesn't affect CJP's reach in a substantial way but gives it recognition as being a threat to the establishment," he said.

"True to its brand name, CJP has started multiplying its online effect with multiple handles on both Instagram and X with a geographical suffix. This will help it gain more vernacular audiences in the days to come," he added.

So far, the CJP is a purely digital movement.

Speaking of the movement in general, Narwani said an interesting point to note, is that, unlike other political movements, the symbol of change is not a political outsider but an insect which is deliberately unlovable.

"The meme-makers have actually achieved something quite difficult: they've made a cockroach into an object of affection. A symbol of resistance."

CJP founder's parents lose sleep over possible legal trouble

The overnight popularity of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) amid India's youth is giving founder Abhijeet Dipke's parents sleepless nights, news agency PTI reported.

Bhagwan and Anita Dipke said they were overwhelmed by fears that their son could land in trouble or even face arrest.

The duo voiced their concerns a day after the CJP's X handle was blocked in India, reportedly on direction of the central government which has concerns that the CJP posed a "threat to the sovereignty of India."

Critics of the Narendra Modi-led government have previously argued that his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) uses anti-terror laws to target dissidents and activists, effectively curbing freedom of speech.

India-US ties at a 'reinvigoration moment'

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to arrive in Kolkata on Saturday to begin his three-day official visit.

His trip to India is likely to focus on defense, India's energy security, and the pending finalization of an India-US trade deal struck earlier this year.

Rubio's visit takes on special importance, not only amid the disruptions caused by the US-Israel war with Iran, but also because diplomatic ties between New Delhi and Washington have grown strained over the past year.

With all of this in mind, DW's India Bureau Chief, Sandra Petersmann, spoke with Vrinda Sahai, a research analyst at Carnegie India.

Addressing recent tensions between the two strategic partners, Sahai said that "this is not just a relationship of the short term. This is something that has been built up for decades. So, one disturbing year or one year with a little bit of bad energy is not enough to shake the ground on the India-US relationship."

"What I like to call it is we are at a reinvigoration moment. So, we might have an opportunity to introduce some new energy," she said.

"The faith in the long-standing, decades-long partnerships in defense, trade and technology is there. The foundations are not shaken. There are instances of disruptions," Sahai told DW.

Watch out for the full interview on the DW website and our social media channels.

India generates record power to meet demand amid heat wave

India's power producers are generating record amounts of electricity as residents of the world's most populous nation swelter amid an intense heat wave, the power ministry said.

Thursday was the "fourth consecutive day when the peak power demand reached a new all-time high," the ministry said in a statement on X. At the time the post was published, temperatures sizzled at 45.3 degrees Celsius (113.54 degrees Fahrenheit) in the capital, New Delhi.

"This represents a new high in peak demand met," the ministry said, surpassing Wednesday's record.

"The surge in demand appears to be linked to the greater usage of cooling appliances in view of the prevailing weather conditions across the country," it said.

About 62% of the record power generation was met by thermal power, largely coal. Solar power accounted for another 22%, and wind and hydropower accounted for 5% each.

India is the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. While it has committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2070, it remains heavily reliant on coal.

Despite the ministry's statement on power production, followers of the ministry's X account reported cuts in their districts. The intense heat can overload old wiring and transformers and cause localized blackouts.

Earlier this week, India's weather agency warned of persistent heat waves across northwestern, central and eastern India. Maximum temperatures in certain pockets have risen over 48 degrees Celsius.

Schoolgirls in Jharkhand invent green tech to beat blackouts

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Quad diplomats to meet in Delhi amid Rubio's visit

Diplomats of the Quad nations — US, Japan, Australia and India — are to hold a meeting in New Delhi on May 26, on the last day of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's visit to India.

India's foreign ministry said the Quad meeting will include India's External Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the Foreign Minister of Australia, Penny Wong, the Foreign Minister of Japan, Toshimitsu Motegi, and the US' Rubio.

"They will exchange views on advancing Quad cooperation across priority areas, review progress on ongoing Quad initiatives, and reflect on recent developments in the Indo-Pacific region and other international issues of mutual concern," the statement said.

The Quad, or the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, is an informal security group made up of the US, India, Japan and Australia with the stated aim of maintaining a "free and open Indo-Pacific." That goal has taken on special importance after the US-Israeli war with Iran caused severe restrictions to global trade in the region.

The foreign ministers of Japan and Australia will also hold bilateral talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their visit.

Meanwhile, Rubio is set to tour four Indian cities between May 23 and May 26, including Kolkata in the east, Agra in the north, Jaipur in the west and in the capital, New Delhi. He is also to hold bilateral discussion with Modi.

What is the CJP and what was it posting?

The 'cockroach' movement began earlier this week, as a satirical criticism towards the Chief Justice of India who likening some of India's youth to "parasites" and "cockroaches."

"There are youngsters like cockroaches who do not get any employment…some of them become media, some become social media, some RTI activists, and they start attacking everyone," he had said.

Within a day, Cockroach Janta Party — whose name is a play on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — founder Abhijeet Dipke asked, "What if all cockroaches come together?"

Up came the parody website with a five-point manifesto, promising to clamp down on corruption, inter-party defection, and increasing women's representation in the Indian parliament.

The satirical party has so far criticized the BJP over allegations of corruption, lack of employment and more recently the cancellation of the all-India pre-medical entrance exams which has reportedly led to student suicides, as per Indian media.

The group has also accused Modi's BJP of attempting to hack into the its Instagram account several times since Tuesday.

On Friday, Dipke posted video on the Cockroach Janta Party's account, saying "I think it's time to do some real work."

He launched a petition to have India's Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan sacked over the entrance exam cancellation.

"It is the system's fault which has spoiled the future of 2.2 million students across India. It is the system's fault that NEET students have committed suicide," he said, asking fellow "cockroaches" to sign the petition.

The NEET-UG examinations were canceled on May 12 after students had already taken the exam amid allegations of leaked papers. The high-pressure exam is set to be reconducted in June, but students across India have been impacted by the developments. As per Indian media reports, at least two students have committed suicide due to the cancellation.

DW attempted to reach out to the BJP via its spokesperson but has not yet received a response.

Cockroach Janta Party's X handle blocked over 'national security' concerns — report

The Indian government directed social media platform X to block the satirical Cockroach Janta Party handle in India, citing "national security concerns," The Indian Express daily reported on Friday.

According to the report, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi received information from India's Intelligence Bureau (IB) that raised concerns around the account. India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) then directed the X social media platform to withhold the satirical account.

India has a legal framework that allows the government to intervene directly in online content by ordering platforms to remove or block content on grounds such as threats to national security or disruptions to public order.

These directives are legally binding but are not made public.

"MeitY received an input from the IB to block the X account of Cockroach Janta Party, citing that it posed a threat to the sovereignty of India. The IB believed that the account was posting inflammatory content through its account, which could have jeopardized the country’s national security," The Indian Express cited an anonymous government official as saying.

"In particular, the concern stemmed from the fact that the account's content was gaining traction among young people," the official reportedly said.

The report said the government had sent the order to X when the account had merely 90,000 followers, citing a second government official. The 'CJP_2029' handle had over 200,000 followers when the account was finally blocked.

The parody party's main presence, however, is on a different social media platform. It had nearly 20 million followers on Instagram on Friday morning, mostly gathered over the last three days. That's more than double the 9 million followers Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party — the largest political party in the world by membership numbers — has on Instagram, .

"However, it is likely that the Instagram account would also be blocked, and that process is currently underway," the senior official said.

Good morning! and welcome to DW's India news blog.

This is Mahima Kapoor from the New Delhi bureau, and I'll be your guide through India’s biggest headlines, political drama and everything else making news across the country today.

Much of northern, central and eastern India is sweltering amid heat waves and there is no respite in sight. India's weather agency said in its latest forecast. Maximum temperatures are likely to persist till May 27, so stay hyderated and keep out of the sun when possible.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has recently returned from a five-nation tour to the UAE and Europe, is facing political heat over a growing 'cockroach' movement led by Gen Z internet users. The parody Cockroach Janta Party's X handle was blocked in India over "national security" concerns and reports say its Instagram handle may be in danger too.

Meanwhile, India is preparing to recieve US Secretary fo State Marco Rubio for a three-day state visit starting tomorrow. On his last day in India, Rubio will be joined by other representatives of the Quad grouping — which includes India, the US, Japan and Australia — according to Japan's external ministry.

We will discuss all of this and more. Stay tuned!