India, May 24 -- It started as a satirical meme page named after an insect. A week later, police are guarding its founder's home, Union ministers and top leaders are making cross-border allegations, and cybercriminals are running scams in its name.

The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), an unregistered online outfit founded by Boston University student Abhijeet Dipke, continues to crawl its way up in the public imagination and the government's eye.

Its latest Instagram post showed some young men and women dressed as "cockroaches" in Jaipur, Rajasthan, protesting against corruption. "Cockroaches are making their voices heard, just the way we want it, peacefully and democratically," read the caption.

In Odisha's Bhubaneshwar, some young men ea...