NEW DELHI — The Bharatiya Janata Party has governed India since 2014. It has won three consecutive national elections. It has the largest party membership in the world by its own accounting — somewhere between 180 and 200 million members, a number so large it constitutes a country by itself (it would be the world's 8th most populous). It has won elections in most states it has contested. It has achieved things that BJP supporters list with justifiable pride and achievements that BJP critics list with justifiable concern and a third list that both sides describe differently. It is the most organised, most funded, most digitally sophisticated political operation India has ever produced. It has 8.8 million Instagram followers.

The CJP launched on May 16 with an insect logo, a Google form, and a manifesto written in Boston. By May 22 it had 19 million Instagram followers. The BJP has been building its digital presence since 2014 with professional teams, dedicated social media cells in every state, and the full resources of a governing party. The CJP has Abhijeet Dipke and a WiFi connection. The CJP has 2.2x the BJP's Instagram following. This is not a condemnation of the BJP's digital strategy. This is a description of the gap between the institutions of power and the people who are currently not benefiting from them, expressed in follower count.

The BJP's response has been to not respond — officially. Unofficially, BJP IT cell accounts have been posting content describing the CJP as "anti-national," "Congress-funded," and "urban Naxal adjacent," which are three accusations the BJP IT cell applies to most things it disagrees with and which, in this case, are being applied to a cockroach created by a former AAP worker in Boston. The "Congress-funded" allegation is complicated by the fact that Congress leaders have joined the CJP as members, which the BJP treats as confirmation of the allegation and everyone else treats as evidence that the CJP is so broad a tent that it has attracted people from multiple opposition parties, none of whom are the CJP, which is its own party, which is a cockroach, which does not take party funding because it is a cockroach. The BJP's IT cell will continue to post. The cockroach will continue to breed. These are parallel processes that will not resolve each other.

What the BJP absolutely cannot do — and this is the CJP's strategic masterstroke, accidental though it may be — is mock the cockroach symbol without confirming the original remark that created it. If the BJP says "you are identifying as cockroaches — how insulting," it confirms that the remark was made and was understood the way it was understood. If the BJP ignores it, the cockroach grows. If the BJP engages seriously, it legitimises a satirical party as a serious interlocutor. All three options are uncomfortable. The BJP has chosen Option 2. The cockroach is growing.