Fresh Violence At Delhi Youth Protest Demanding Minister’s Resignation

NEW DELHI: Youth protesters demanding the resignation of India’s education minister briefly clashed with police on the streets of New Delhi late yesterday, with officers firing tear gas and using batons to disperse the crowd, police and witnesses said.

More than 10,000 people were estimated to have gathered at the Jantar Mantar protest site in central New Delhi, local media reported, as leaders of the ‘Cockroach’ movement vowed to continue their month-old campaign until the minister resigned over exam paper leaks that affected about two million students in May.

The protests have become the biggest youth-led challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he came to power in 2014, with opposition parties backing the movement’s demands and disrupting the monsoon session of parliament, which began this week.

Tens of thousands of protesters marched towards parliament on Monday in defiance of a ban, prompting police and paramilitary personnel to fire tear gas and use batons to push them back.

Yesterday, thousands of demonstrators gathered at the Jantar Mantar protest site, chanting slogans and waving the Indian flag, while others staged protests outside parliament.

By late evening, the crowd had grown to more than 10,000 and spilled onto surrounding roads before violence broke out, local media reported.

Some protesters threw stones and plastic bottles at police late on Wednesday, injuring several officers who were taken to hospital, news agency ANI quoted Delhi Police as saying.

Videos shared on X, including by local journalists, appeared to show small groups of protesters clashing with police, who responded with batons and tear gas.

Reuters could not independently verify the videos.

The protests by the self-styled Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) began as an online satire and initially attracted only a few hundred young people.

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said the demonstrations would continue until Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned.

“It has been 25 days so far. Even if it takes 25 months, that is acceptable, but we will not move from here,” Dipke told protesters late yesterday.

Metro stations closed

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation said it would close 16 stations in and around central New Delhi today until further notice, marking the second large-scale closure this week because of security concerns.

Responding to sustained pressure from protesters, Modi’s government has held one round of talks with CJP leaders and assured them their demands would be considered. It has also offered to debate the issues in parliament and introduce reforms to the examination system.

Opposition parties led by the Congress party have echoed the protesters’ demands, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi leading demonstrations outside Modi’s residence and parliament.

Gandhi said Pradhan’s resignation was non-negotiable and that opposition leaders would meet on Thursday morning to decide their next course of action in parliament.

The CJP’s growing popularity reflects mounting frustration among young Indians over issues including unemployment and recurring examination paper leaks.

It has also given opposition parties a rare opportunity to increase pressure on Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which counts young voters among its core support base and has won a series of state elections since the 2024 general election, in which Modi failed to secure an outright parliamentary majority.

REUTERS