Indian court orders government to unblock Cockroach party's X account

The CJP founder has termed the decision a "big win" for the party

An Indian court directed the federal government to unblock the X account of the youth Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on Tuesday, more than a month since it went offline after amassing some 200,000 followers within days of being created, its founder and a lawyer involved in the case said.

• The government had justified the move in court by citing concerns that posts from the account could cause chaos during a national medical college entrance examination that had to be reconducted after its question papers were leaked.

• The CJP, which has been communicating with its X followers via an alternate account, has been holding sit-in protests for the last fortnight demanding the education minister's resignation over the issue.

• The Delhi High Court order came after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government said it had no objection to the account being unblocked, the lawyer told Reuters.

• CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, in a post on X, termed the decision a "big win" for the party, the movement, and for "free speech and digital rights".

• The account remained withheld in India on Tuesday evening, "in response to a legal demand", its page said.

• The CJP, which describes itself as representing "the lazy, the unemployed, and the chronically correct", has almost 22 million followers on its Instagram page.

• Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, which has termed the group part of "an anti-India gang", has little over 9 million followers.