India's 'Cockroach' movement vows to continue with protest

New Delhi: India's 'Cockroach' party movement vowed Tuesday to press ahead with their campaign until Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigns.
'We won't stop. Pradhan has to be sacked,' Ashutosh Ranka of the Cockroach Janta Party said, a day after some 180 people were injured in the biggest protest in New Delhi in around five years.

Chaotic scenes played out on the streets of New Delhi on Monday, as security forces used tear gas and batons to disperse tens of thousands of people marching on the parliament in one of the largest protests against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in years.

The protest in the Indian capital, largely fueled by young people, was called to demand the resignation of the country’s education minister after botched college entrance exams that have disrupted the lives of millions of students.

A smiling Modi, who arrived to open a session of the parliament, tried to project an image of calm. He did not address the protesters’ demands directly, even as security forces struggled to hold back the crowds spilling onto the roads leading to the building.

By day’s end, the police crackdown, in which protesters were beaten up, appeared to have dispersed much of the crowd. The exact number of protesters injured was not clear, but Indian media reported that more than 100 people had been brought to two hospitals in Delhi.

Police officials told Indian news outlets that at least 50 of their personnel were also injured.

Over 60 protesters were arrested, according to lawyers who were rallying legal help for them.

Modi’s response has so far remained consistent with his decade-old position that his ministers are not answerable to public pressure.

But the size and force of the protests may indicate that his ruling party has underestimated the raw anger among young people in India, particularly after recent student movements in neighboring Bangladesh and Nepal toppled governments.

His image as a strongman may also be showing cracks.

Television channels friendly to Modi, which had largely ignored the buildup to Monday’s protest, broadcast footage of panic around the parliament as security guards ran around holding the line with water cannons and tear gas. On social media, a space where Modi’s ruling party has enjoyed outsize influence, the Generation Z protesters appeared to be breaking through, with memes and livestreams of the protests and the police crackdown.

“The apathy the government is showing us is shameful,” said Anshul Yadav, 20, who attended the protests Monday with two friends. “The government should come talk,” he said. “Education is important.”

Public anger over the exam scandal has been simmering since May, when more than 2 million students who took India’s biggest entrance exam for medical school found out that the results would be scrapped because the questions had been leaked and that they would have to retake the test.

Such leaks have become a frequent problem in recent years, and news reports in India that some students have died by suicide because of the stress have intensified the outrage. The movement has since grown into broader discontent over the failings of the Indian education system and the lack of accountability in governance.

The movement gained momentum over the weekend after police forcibly removed Sonam Wangchuk, a prominent activist who had been on hunger strike at the protest site for more than 20 days. Police said they had moved him to a hospital for court-ordered essential medical care, despite opposition from his family and fellow protesters.

Running the Barricades

On Monday morning, crowds chanting slogans against Modi poured into the Jantar Mantar area, a protest site not far from the parliament. The streets were jammed with mostly young people, many saying they had come from other parts of India. They tried to push their way to the site through heavy barricades. In some areas, police welded tall barricades to stop the protesters from moving toward the parliament.

By Monday afternoon, a senior member of Modi’s Cabinet, J.P. Nadda, met with representatives of the movement, the first such outreach since the protests began. 
The movement’s leaders have issued three specific demands: the immediate resignation of the education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan; the discharge from the hospital of Wangchuk; and compensation for the families of those students who died by suicide.