Thousands of young Indians thronged the streets of Delhi on Wednesday as the youth-led “cockroach” protest movement entered its fourth day, showing no sign of abating in its challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
The Guardian’s south Asia correspondent Hannah Ellis-Petersen, on the ground in Delhi, reported that many protesters had travelled hundreds of miles to join the demonstrations. The movement, which began as an online joke, was triggered by the leak of medical school entrance exams and a Supreme Court judge comparing unemployed young people to “cockroaches”.
“Thousands of young Indians are protesting in Delhi for a fourth day, demanding accountability over exam leaks and targeting the education minister.”
While the Cockroach Janta party has primarily focused on accountability for the devastating recent leaks of exam papers and called for the resignation of the education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, the overriding feeling as the week develops is that this is now bigger than one issue. For some, this is the moment that India’s youth – totalling more than 600 million – found its political voice.
The unprecedented expression of dissent has drawn in the main opposition Congress party, whose leader Rahul Gandhi was among those detained yesterday, according to Channel 4 News’s Ria Chatterjee. The protests now present a serious challenge to Modi’s government, suggesting that what started as an online insult has ignited a political force Modi cannot ignore.