3 min readUpdated: Jul 21, 2026 01:25 PM IST
A day after protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party rocked the national capital, and a parallel demonstration was seen in Panaji’s Azad Maidan in Goa, the state’s BJP vice-president waded into a row by saying “cockroaches are with termites”.
In a post on X on Monday night, BJP vice-president Narendra Sawaikar said, “Cockroaches with the termites! Save the nation!”
Sawaikar’s post drew criticism from the Congress and Goa Forward Party, who demanded an apology from the BJP leader for using “disgraceful and dehumanising language.”
Cocroches with the termites!
Save the nation! pic.twitter.com/kef8RuNLrZ— Narendra Sawaikar नरेंद्र सावईकर (@NSawaikar) July 20, 2026
Sunil Kawthankar, working president, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC), said Sawaikar’s attempt to label young citizens protesting peacefully for their rights and future as ‘termites’ is an “insult to every democratic voice in our country.”
“I wish to remind him that the real termites are those who are hollowing out our institutions, weakening democracy, selling national assets, destroying the environment, and dividing people for political gain. It is the BJP that is eating away at the soul of India like a cancer. Goa’s youth are not termites, they are the conscience of the nation and our state,” he said.
Goa Forward Party student wing’s president Vrushank Gaonkar said, “We.. .the youth have the potential to change… and we are showing the resistance against all unfair activities happening in the country and in Goa. If we feel something is wrong, and it will affect our future, we have the right to speak up against it. This reference to us (students)… cockroaches, termites… it will not demotivate us. In fact, it will motivate us to raise our voices.”
However, former South Goa MP Sawaikar, when contacted, said, “Just see my post on Twitter. It is still there. I am not referring to anyone as ‘termites’. I have said in the post ‘Cockroaches with the termites’. That’s all. Is there any reference to anyone? There’s nothing. Why someone wants to derive any inference from that? Therefore… someone must be feeling guilty about it. Is there any specific mention to anyone (in the post)? Termites are also as bad as cockroaches, right? In our house, both cockroaches and termites, if they enter… they demolish it… and just eat into it.”
On Monday evening, hundreds of protesters gathered near the Miramar circle and held a candle-light solidarity march to Azad Maidan in Panaji. The protest was organised by Goa-based NGO ‘Uzwaad’.
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Amreen Shaikh, Secretary of ‘Uzwaad’, said, “Papers are being leaked. And those students who died (by suicide) due to (NEET) cancellation… the people responsible must face punishment and there has to be accountability. The Minister (Pradhan) must resign. The government should know that if we can give them power, we can also take back that power. And when we ask for accountability, we mean it.”