A million thanks, Chief Justice of India.
With one off-the-cuff remark, your loose tongue accomplished what years of political speeches, television debates, and social media campaigns could not.
You gave birth to the Cockroaches.
What began as an insult quickly turned into a movement.
The cockroaches multiplied, not in drains and dark corners, but in universities, streets, and public squares across India.
Congratulations.
You inadvertently united a generation.
Students, professionals, opposition leaders, writers, artists, and even film personalities proudly embraced the label.
The insult became a badge of honour. The bug developed wings.
But the cockroaches refused to remain just a clever social media meme.
Led by 30-year-old Abhijeet Dipke, they demanded something far more dangerous than slogans: accountability, transparency, and fairness in India’s higher education system.
On July 20, hundreds of thousands of these self-proclaimed cockroaches converged on Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, the country’s symbolic stage for public dissent.
The authorities responded with predictable efficiency.
Thousands of police officers arrived armed with lathis, shields, and tear-gas shells, apparently convinced that the best way to eliminate cockroaches is by beating them with lathis.
History, however, has an odd sense of humour.
Movements often begin when those in authority underestimate the people they ridicule.
If the “cockroach” movement continues to grow, Justice Surya Kant may one day be remembered, not for the courtroom remark he intended, but for accidentally christening a generation unwilling to crawl quietly.
Sometimes revolutions begin not with a manifesto, but with an insult.
So, thank you once again, Justice Surya Kant, for incubating a revolutionary movement.
-Promod Puri
promodpuri.com
Promod Puri.com 