A LinkedIn post by a CockroachDB employee, poking fun at an alleged mix-up between his company and the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), has gone viral amid the latter's ongoing protest at Delhi's Jantar Mantar.
Ankur Raina, who describes himself as working in "Revenue & Technology" at the company, wrote on LinkedIn, "Some politicians are viewing my profile. I work for CockroachDB (Cockroach Labs). No association with Cockroach Janta Party. We just make apps more resilient & scalable."
CockroachDB is a distributed database company built by Cockroach Labs, named after the cockroach's reputation for resilience — its products are marketed around the idea of software that can "survive" outages and failures, much like the insect.
The Cockroach Janta Party, on the other hand, is a political outfit founded by Abhijeet Dipke that has been leading a high-profile agitation at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged NEET-UG paper leak irregularities.
The protest is dominating headlines nowadays, drawing heavy police deployment, a hunger strike by activist Sonam Wangchuk, and renewed talks between the party and the Centre.
With "Cockroach" trending in the news cycle because of the party's activities, it appears some users, possibly including political staffers, landed on LinkedIn profiles of CockroachDB employees while searching for information related to the CJP, prompting Raina's tongue-in-cheek clarification.
Raina's post drew a wave of amused replies on the platform.
One user, Deepak Koul, joked that the mix-up was "nothing compared to 'please break your fast' DMs that Sonam Bajwa had to endure", a reference to actor Sonam Bajwa being confused for activist Sonam Wangchuk during his hunger strike.
Another user, Vibhav Sharma, compared the episode to "a milder version of what happened to Corona Beer in 2020," recalling how the beer brand faced an unrelated dip in public perception during the Covid pandemic due to the similarity in name.
Meanwhile, Arsh Deep quipped in Hindi, "Bhai politicians LinkedIn pe hain to Parliament mein kaun hai" (If politicians are on LinkedIn, then who's in Parliament?), poking fun at lawmakers apparently browsing profiles instead of attending to parliamentary business.
ALSO READ: NEET Paper Leak Row: PM Modi Promises 'More Strict Action' In Friday's Cabinet Meeting
Essential Business Intelligence, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice, Daily Fuel, Gold and Silver Prices and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.