The Five Demands of the Cockroach Janta Party Explained

The Cockroach Janta Party is built on a deliberately short manifesto. Not fifty pages. Not five hundred. Five demands — each one specific, measurable, and impossible for any honest political party to oppose in public. This article walks through all five, what each one means in practice, and why they were chosen.

Demand One: RTI Accountability

Restore the Right to Information Act, 2005 to its original strength. Fill every vacant Information Commissioner post within ninety days. Restore fixed five-year tenure for Information Commissioners. Introduce automatic statutory penalties on Public Information Officers who miss the thirty-day deadline. Create protected status for RTI applicants on sensitive subjects. Why first? Because every other demand requires the ability to ask questions and get answers.

Demand Two: Judicial Reform

End post-retirement government appointments for Supreme Court and High Court judges within two years of retirement. Make the collegium system transparent with published minutes. Introduce a national judicial complaints mechanism that does not depend on the goodwill of the judges being complained about. Why? Because a judiciary that quietly auditions for its next job is not independent — and the cockroach comment proved how little contempt a section of the bench feels for the people it serves.

Demand Three: Electoral Integrity

Publish voter roll deletions district-wise, in machine-readable form, every quarter. Make the Election Commission's internal voter list audit reports public within thirty days of completion. Require any deletion of more than 0.5 percent of a constituency's voter list in a single revision to trigger an automatic independent audit. Why? Because the integrity of every other demand depends on whether the people most affected by them can actually cast a vote.

Demand Four: Free Speech

Decriminalise online satire, memes, and peaceful dissent. Repeal the vague "hurt sentiments" provisions that have been used to jail comedians, students, and journalists. Introduce a clear, narrow definition of incitement that requires intent and imminence, in line with international standards. Why? Because a movement born from a meme cannot survive in a country where memes are criminal.

Demand Five: Honest Jobs

Publish a national public dashboard of every central and state government vacancy, every postponed or cancelled recruitment exam, every paper leak investigation, and every pending appointment letter — updated monthly, machine-readable, free to download. Introduce a statutory floor of protections for gig and contract workers. Why? Because the cheapest way to fix unemployment is to stop lying about it.

Why Only Five?

Indian manifestos traditionally try to be everything to everyone. They promise the moon and deliver a single subsidised LED bulb. CJP took the opposite bet. Pick five things that matter, that are concrete, that are measurable, and that any honest citizen — left, right, centre, or apolitical — can support on the merits. If a future party of government delivers all five, CJP will retire. That is the deal.

How These Demands Will Be Pushed

Each demand has a dedicated working group of CJP members across India: lawyers, RTI activists, election volunteers, journalists, and ordinary citizens with skin in the game. The party publishes a public scorecard rating every major political party, every state government, and every relevant central ministry on progress against the five demands every quarter. Voters in 2026 will have the data they need to choose.

Join the Demands

CJP frames its platform around five demands and a self-described unsponsored movement. Readers interested in the party's working groups or membership should visit https://www.cockroachjantaparty.org. This site's newsletter provides independent coverage, not party enrollment.