Abhijit Dipke was in no mood to back down on Tuesday. Standing before protesters at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi for the fourth consecutive day, the founder of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) fired back at Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who had called the outfit the "B team of terrorists."

"The Education Minister is calling the youth of the country terrorists. Sir, we are not terrorists. We do not need patriotism certificates from people like you," Dipke told the crowd gathered at the protest site.

He followed that up with a sharp post on X, writing that Pradhan's hands "are stained with the blood of more than 17 students" — a reference to student deaths linked to competitive exam stress and coaching institute conditions, a charge the minister's office has not directly addressed.

Pradhan, for his part, showed no signs of softening his position. In an interview with NDTV on Tuesday, the minister said those "rejected by democracy have come back in disguise" and are now targeting the system. "They raise slogans for those who want to divide the country. Their identity has been established," he said. Pradhan also warned that coaching centres and what he called "education mafias" are under watch. "We will bring them to their knees; we cannot secure the future of the country's children," he added.

The war of words marks a sharp escalation in what has become one of the more unusual political standoffs in recent memory — a movement built around a judicial insult, now squaring off against a senior cabinet minister.

CJP came into existence following a remark by Chief Justice Suryakant during a May 15 court hearing, in which he referred to unemployed youth who become RTI activists or media workers as "cockroaches who attack the system." The comment lit a fuse. The very next day, Dipke — a 30-year-old digital media strategist from Sambhaji Nagar, Maharashtra, currently pursuing a Master's in Public Relations at Boston University — launched the Cockroach Janata Party from the United States and set up its social media accounts.

What followed was a rapid and unexpected surge. By June 10, CJP's Instagram account had amassed 2.27 crore followers — more than BJP's 94 lakh and Congress's 1.37 crore, though the figure has since dipped by roughly two lakh. On X, the party has 2.79 lakh followers. On May 22, Dipke launched an online petition demanding Pradhan's resignation, which reportedly drew support from over eight lakh people.

The movement has now spread to eight cities over 15 days, with protests running in parallel across locations. Dipke, who studied journalism in Pune before moving abroad and was previously associated with the Aam Aadmi Party, has emerged as the face of what his supporters describe as a youth-driven pushback against institutional apathy toward unemployment and student welfare.

Whether CJP's social media muscle translates into sustained street pressure remains to be seen. But Tuesday's exchange showed both sides digging in — Dipke framing it as a generational fight for dignity, Pradhan framing it as a threat to national unity. The protests at Jantar Mantar are expected to continue.