Media Mistrust Fuels the ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ Protest at Jantar Mantar

On a humid Saturday morning, Jantar Mantar in Delhi turned into a makeshift rally ground for a group that calls itself the ‘Cockroach Janta Party’. Their banners, splashed with bright orange and black, read slogans like “Media is the real pest” and “Stop turning us into cockroaches”. The atmosphere was noisy, the chants repetitive, and the mood—well, it was a mixture of anger and a kind of weary determination.

When I approached a few participants, they spoke at length—sometimes repeating the same point, sometimes veering off into personal anecdotes about how a single news report had allegedly smeared their families. One young man, Rahul, told me that a televised interview had shown him muttering “we’ll bite you later”, a line he insisted was taken out of context. He laughed nervously, added a pause, and then said, “The media loves drama, you know? They want a story, not facts.”

Another protester, an older woman named Sunita, clutched a notebook filled with handwritten notes on various news articles. She pointed to a headline that labeled the group “radical fringe”, and she argued, “They never ask us why we chose this name. They just paint us with a brush they already have.” Her tone was peppered with sighs, as if the repetition of the same grievance was wearing her thin.

The crowd’s grievances were not limited to misquotations. Several speakers mentioned “selective reporting”, claiming that when they tried to convey a peaceful message, the footage shown on TV focused on a few agitators, making the whole gathering look violent. A teenager, barely out of high school, added, “It’s like they edit us out, then edit us back in as villains. It’s confusing, honestly.”

In between the chants—“Media ka khilona mat bano!”—the protesters held up signs demanding “fair coverage” and “right to speak”. The irony was not lost on the observers: a group shouting for freedom of expression while demanding the very same from the media they distrust.

Police presence was minimal, and the protest remained peaceful despite a few heated exchanges. As the sun began to set, a few participants started packing up, still muttering about “another day, another headline”. Their frustration seemed to linger, as palpable as the dust swirling around the ancient observatory.