Another Day, Another Legal Demand and ‘Cockroach Janata Party’ Blocked on X; India Abstains on Climate Change Resolution at UN; Rubio Claims Venezuela's Delcy Rodrigues is Coming to Delhi
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Snapshot of the day
May 21, 2026
Anirudh S.K.
One hundred and forty one nations have voted in the UN General Assembly to adopt a resolution endorsing the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion that countries have a legal obligation to protect the climate from greenhouse gas emissions; eight countries voted against. India abstained from voting, arguing that the text of the resolution does not talk about the need for developed countries to lead efforts toward mitigation and providing developing countries with funding and support. It also said the resolution tries to put obligations on developing countries that they have not multilaterally agreed upon. Twenty-seven other countries abstained and the US was among those that voted no on Wednesday (in addition to pressuring countries to get the resolution’s author, the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu, to drop it). UN secretary general Antonio Guterres called the 141-8 vote a “powerful affirmation of … the responsibility of states to protect people from the escalating climate crisis”.
Although the fourth India-Africa Forum Summit was scheduled to take place in New Delhi next week it has been deferred indefinitely in light of the “evolving health situation in parts of Africa”, in other words the Ebola outbreak in Congo-Kinshasa and in Uganda (the joint press statement by India and the African Union did not directly name the disease). The outbreak, declared a public health emergency of international concern, has seen no fewer than 500 suspected cases and has claimed 131 lives in Congo.
In another likely addition to our ‘mother of democracy’ file (nay, shelf), the now-ubiquitous ‘legal demand’ has struck once again and X has withheld the satirical Cockroach Janata Party’s account in India. This, hours after it overtook the BJP in terms of Instagram followers – as of the Cable going to press the roaches have a nine-and-a-half million lead over the world’s largest political party. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke is not surprised by the takedown and has called it an “own goal”. The outfit was founded days ago after Chief Justice Surya Kant said that “there are youngsters like cockroaches, they don’t get any employment” and become journalists and activists and “start attacking everyone”. The judge later said he was only referring to people with fake law degrees.
The RBI stepped in on Thursday with a familiar defence of the rupee, reportedly selling dollars through state-run banks ahead of market open to arrest a sharp slide in the currency after a series of record lows. The intervention sparked a swift rebound, pushing the rupee to close at 96.2 per dollar, before which it had jumped roughly 70 paise within minutes of the cenbank’s intervention.
Against this backdrop of volatility, the Economist argues that India’s currency pressures are far from resolved. As it notes:
