Quick answer: Sonam Wangchuk, the educationist, environmentalist, Padma Shri awardee, and real-life inspiration behind 3 Idiots’ Phunsukh Wangdu, called himself an “honorary cockroach” while defending the Cockroach Janta Party as creative democratic feedback from Indian youth.
The government called it a threat. Wangchuk called it a message.
What Sonam Wangchuk said
As CJP’s accounts were being blocked, hacked, withheld, or removed, Sonam Wangchuk publicly responded to the movement. He said he did not technically qualify as a cockroach because he was neither unemployed nor lazy, but still considered himself an “honorary cockroach.”
“I do not qualify — I am neither unemployed nor lazy — but I consider myself an honorary cockroach.”
That one line mattered because Wangchuk was not speaking as a party politician. He was not seeking CJP membership. He was not part of the organisation. He was a public intellectual looking at a youth-led protest movement and saying: this is not something to fear.
He also said that creative expressions by youth were “nothing to worry about” and urged the government not to “kill the messenger.”
Why his support mattered
Wangchuk’s credibility is different from a routine political endorsement. He founded SECMOL in Ladakh, received the Padma Shri, built the Ice Stupa project, and has spent years advocating for Ladakh’s rights, education reform, ecological responsibility, and constitutional protections.
He has also personally experienced state pressure during protest movements. That makes his warning sharper. He was not speaking about suppression as theory. He was speaking from experience.
When Wangchuk called CJP a form of democratic feedback, he was saying something very simple: young people using satire, memes, badges, and digital expression should not be treated as enemies of the state.
The Nepal warning
Wangchuk also warned that suppressing online expression can push anger into the streets. He pointed to Nepal as an example of what can happen when governments shut down creative digital expression instead of listening to the underlying frustration.
That warning was not random. By then, CJP’s X account had been withheld, the Instagram account had disappeared, the website had been blocked, and the backup account had also been removed.
In other words, the state was not only ignoring the message. It was trying to delete the messenger.
Then came the security irony
Within 24 hours, Maharashtra police reportedly deployed round-the-clock armed security at the family home of CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. The stated reason was not a threat perception, but to prevent crowding from supporters.
That is the contradiction at the heart of the story.
The same movement that was framed as a threat had become popular enough that the police were now managing crowds of supporters at the founder’s family home.
So which one was it?
- Was CJP a national security threat?
- Or was it a youth movement with mass support?
- Was the government afraid of foreign influence?
- Or was it afraid of Indian youth recognising themselves in the word “cockroach”?
The government proved Wangchuk’s point
Wangchuk’s central point was that the government should not treat youth creativity as a threat. The government’s own actions made his point stronger.
Accounts were withheld. Websites were blocked. Backup pages disappeared. Then security was deployed because too many supporters might gather.
That is not the behaviour of a state dealing with a joke. That is the behaviour of a state dealing with sentiment.
A movement that needs suppression across platforms and protection at a family home is not a small meme anymore. It is a public mood.
The honorary cockroach understood
Sonam Wangchuk said he did not qualify as a cockroach. But he claimed the title anyway because, by then, the word had become bigger than employment status.
It had become a side.
On one side were those who thought young people should be mocked, dismissed, blocked, and accused. On the other side were those who thought youth anger deserved to be heard.
Wangchuk stood with the pests.
The cockroach record
The cockroach was supposed to be an insult. CJP turned it into identity. Wangchuk turned it into solidarity. The government turned it into proof that it was afraid of its own youth.
The accounts may disappear. The posts may be removed. The websites may be blocked.
But the nest remembers.
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