Reuters. India's youth-led "cockroach" movement said it would continue its protest demanding the resignation of the education minister on Tuesday (July 21), a day after violent protests disrupted central Delhi, injuring scores of protesters and police personnel.
Thousands of protesters from Delhi and nearby cities and towns gathered to march on parliament on Monday (July 20), joining a movement that began as an online satire but has turned out to become the biggest challenge for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his third term.
The months-old movement by the self-named Cockroach Janta Party has drawn the support of millions of young, Gen Z Indians who are demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over examination paper leaks that affected more than 2 million students in May.
It says the leaking of the papers for a national entrance test to medical school in May — which forced students to re-test, and led to some taking their own lives — was a sign of deep-seated corruption in education.
Nearly 180 people were injured and taken to nearby state-run hospitals on Monday, with a majority of them discharged after first-aid, after clashes between the protesters and security personnel in which police used cane charges and tear gas.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for setting up a foolproof public examination system in the country on Tuesday, a day after supporters clashed with police as they marched on parliament to protest against question paper leaks.
