All is recorded through a courtroom microphone. Occasionally it will overcatch. The Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant, viewed a lawyer in an open Supreme Court hearing on May 15th. His annoyance was over a petition on the topic of senior advocate designations. The judge unleashed some critically harsh remarks. There are kids that act like cockroaches, he said. He said they are unable to secure work, they are not fit to work in any profession. So they turn into activists. Media. Social media trolls. He termed them parasites, just attacking everyone.
The world-wide-web heard it. It was heard by the young Indians. But they were not angry legal essays that they wrote. They made a joke. But it was a joke that ate up the internet!
A Joke Takes Over The Internet
Abhijeet Dipke is a 30-year-old Public Relations graduate. He was going to take the insult on the chin. So be it if the top man in the land feels that the un-employed youth are crawling like cockroaches. He started a political front. He called it the Cockroach Janta Party. The CJP for short. It’s direct and satirical at the establishment.
The conditions for joining are crazy. It’s a condition of laziness. Must be without work. An internet addiction is a prerequisite. You’ll need to vent your frustrations in a professional manner. They are described by their motto as secular, socialist, democratic and lazy. Driven as a college prank. However, for traditional politicians the numbers behind this are daunting. The CJP got a direct reaction from an entire generation within four days of its launch, on issues such as paper leakage, inflation and unemployment.
They created an Instagram page. It was a popular place for young people to attend. They were a lazy cockroach among them. They had a lot of fun talking about how they would make it through the pressure cooker that is Indian society. After that the joke started to break records. The Cockroach Janta Party says it has more than 10 million followers on Instagram by mid-week. For comparison, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has 8.7 million followers. A group of disgruntled children’s meme account outmuscled the largest political group in the country.
Starting from the real politicians, they started to play along. The Trinamool Congress leaders stepped in. Kirti Azad enquired about his eligibility to join. The CJP told him that the victory of the 1983 Cricket World Cup was good enough. Mahua Moitra asked for a membership card. She was a card carrying member of the Anti-National Party and she wanted the CJP to be on her CV. They were very welcoming.
The Speech That Bites Back
There is the place where the law meets Internet culture.Here is where the law meets the Internet culture. Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution gives every citizen the right to freedom of speech and expression. This includes the right to poke fun at the system. It protects satire. However, it does not take kind words from the man behind the curtain.
The CJP’s popularity skyrocketed and within a matter of days, their X account was suspended in India. The government/authorities hit the mute button. The platform froze the accounts of users from within the country. The digital party which pretended to be the voice of the lazy and unemployed was silenced. This sparked a huge controversy over free speech.
Individuals started to pose a very specific legal question. Why can’t the citizens laugh at the top judge’s description of them as cockroaches and parasites, which is a right they have under their constitution? The law provides a lot of cover for judges. It is well established in law that any observations made by the judge from the bench are oral. In the past, the Supreme Court has ruled that a judge’s opinion is only alive in written orders and judgments. Contentious statements during heated hearings are simply a part of the process of sounding out arguments.
However, words do have weight. The country listened to the Chief Justice. The term parasite is so dirty you can’t get it off your hands! Old standard highlighted by lawyers. They indicate that there are two sides to the bench. One face questions to elucidate the law. The other face sometimes uses language which wounds people. Citizens’ rights are safeguarded against overreach by the state in the Constitution. However, it is very hard to challenge a judge sitting in judgment when he makes a comment in a hearing. The people have only one weapon: Speech. When they did it, their social medias were blocked.
The Protest
It was a no-brainer for Chief Justice Surya Kant that the damage was being done rather quickly. He later released a formal clarification the day following his courtroom remarks that went viral. He said that the media had “misquoted” him. He only claimed that his discussions were not with the youth of India. He said that the young are the source of inspiration for him and the pillars of a developed country.
He attempted to reimagine the whole situation. CJI said that his rage was limited to the fraudsters. He referred to those who are trying to be granted a position in the noble professions, such as law or the newspaper profession, through fake and bogus degrees. Those particular criminals are the parasites, he said. Not the millions of young Indians who are unable to find employment.
However, the momentum of the CJP did not wane as a result of the clarification. There was already a lot of anger in the air. It took advantage of a much grievous frustration. The CJI’s remarks came the same week as students nationwide were protesting against the leakage of gigantic size of their exam papers, which wrecked their chances of gaining admissions in medical college. Young people are fatigued. They feel ignored. The words of the chief justice just became like a match dropped into a pool of gas.
A few days later, CJI Kant was once again sitting on the bench. It was a petition for renaming a Navi Mumbai airport this time. The issue of protesting came up. He uttered another comment. Everyone has the right to peaceful protest and it is part of the law, he said. But he added a condition. He said people should not come out on the streets and create problems for the common man. Under the law, you have the right to complain. It enables you to make a speech. But the spaces and limits in which you can do it continue to shrink. The cockroaches are still watching!
