Thousands protest in India after clashes, despite Modi’s promises to act on exams

By Aftab Ahmed, Saurabh Sharma and Sakshi Dayal

NEW DELHI, July 21 (Reuters) – Thousands of supporters of India’s youth-led “cockroach” movement demonstrated in Delhi on Tuesday, a day after violent clashes with police and despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise to punish those responsible for damaging exam leaks.

More than 5,000 protesters gathered at the Jantar Mantar protest site in Delhi after their march to Parliament to demand the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan ended in violent clashes with police on Monday.

Modi’s comments, reported by a minister, were the first on the subject since question papers for a national medical school entrance exam were leaked in May.

The leaks affected 2 million young people and led a dozen students to commit suicide, according to local media.

Youth anger and exam protests have become the prime minister’s biggest challenge in his third term.

Delhi Police said nearly 180 people, including 118 security and police personnel and 60 protesters, were injured in clashes in central Delhi.

The founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a movement that began as an online satire, said more than 150 protesters were being treated in hospital.

Reuters could not independently verify the number of injuries, after police “beat protesters with batons and fired tear gas to push them back.”

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION, RAHUL GANDHI, DETAINED

A few dozen members of India’s main opposition Congress party, including Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Vadra, also briefly demonstrated against the crackdown outside Modi’s house on Tuesday, before being arrested by police, news agency ANI reported.

The ANI visuals showed Gandhi, dressed in his white T-shirt and khaki pants, lying on the road, resisting attempts to pull him away, while policemen tried to lift him up.

They then showed him being taken into a police bus with other members of his party.

One protester held a poster that read: “Democracy bleeds when votes are defeated” and some members of Congress were arrested by police, television footage showed.

Modi told lawmakers from his ruling alliance that the government acted immediately after receiving reports of exam irregularities and that 13 people had been arrested and jailed, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said.

Modi also said that a review was successfully conducted.

“The Prime Minister said…to ensure that the future of the youth is not compromised…everyone should come together to ensure that strict action is taken, culprits are punished and a foolproof system is created,” Rijiju said.

PROTESTERS SAY THEY WILL NOT MARCH ANYMORE

The CJP movement said it would continue its anti-government protests but would not march to Parliament because it fears its supporters could be beaten again by police.

The months-old movement has garnered support from millions of young Indian Generation Zs who are demanding Pradhan’s resignation. The CJP says the leak of the papers in May was a sign of deep-rooted corruption in the education sector.

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke apologized to his supporters, especially women, who he said were beaten by male police officers.

Delhi Police said the protesters had “displayed unruly, aggressive and violent behaviour” and “deliberately violated the existing prohibitory orders”.

The movement was galvanized by the support of activist Sonam Wangchuk, who began a hunger strike on June 28 but was forcibly transferred to a hospital by police on Saturday.

THE COURT AUTHORIZES THE TRANSFER OF AN ACTIVIST TO A PRIVATE HOSPITAL

On Tuesday, “the Delhi High Court allowed the Magsaysay award winner to be transferred to a private hospital following a petition by his wife alleging that he had been illegally detained.

The court order addresses one of the protesters’ three demands.

The CJP said Health Minister JP Nadda sought time to discuss his demands in the government after a meeting with two leaders on Monday.

The demands include Wangchuk’s release, Pradhan’s resignation and ​compensation of 10 million rupees ($104,000) each for about a dozen students who committed suicide following the leak.

The CJP’s rise in popularity reflects the frustrations of young Indians, including a shortage of jobs as well as exam skips, which they say occur frequently.

(Reporting by Aftab Ahmed, Saurabh Sharma, Francis Mascarenhas, Rajesh Kr Singh, Sakshi Dayal, Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Hritam Mukherjee, Writing by Tanvi Mehta and YP Rajesh; editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Alexandra Hudson and Gareth Jones)