Police attack Cockroach activists as thousands march on Indian parliament

FE Team | Published: July 20, 2026 21:44:14

NEW DELHI: India's riot police baton-charged protesters in New Delhi as they tried to march to parliament on Monday, escalating a protest over irregularities in major examinations.
Protesters ran for cover as police in blue riot gear charged at them near the Jantar Mantar protest site, an AFP journalist saw.
Thousands of protesters started gathering from early Monday, defying a steady monsoon drizzle and police barricades put up on routes leading to the site.
The protesters are demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the irregularities, including question paper leaks and technical glitches.
"We want the government to hear us, not silence us," said student K.M. Gulshan, 19.
The protest comes after prominent activist Sonam Wangchuk was taken to hospital on Saturday, bringing an abrupt end to his 20-day hunger strike in support of youths and the satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) movement.
The CJP has won millions of followers on social media since its launch in May, tapping into widespread anger over the education system and unemployment.
The movement is seen as one of the biggest challenges to Hindu-nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he won his third term in office in 2024.
"PM @narendramodi tell your police to stand down," the CJP said in a post on X on Monday.
"We are a democracy in case you have forgotten. The whole world is watching as you're trying to crush a democratic and peaceful protest."
'Suppress voices'
Despite rapid economic growth, millions of people in the world's most populous nation still struggle to find stable and well-paying jobs, fueling discontent.
Some 2.2 million aspiring medical students sat for a re-examination under tight security last month after the previous test was scrapped following a question paper leak that triggered widespread outrage.
That came on top of another scandal related to the online marking system of tests taken by nearly two million high school students.
The Internet was snapped in parts of central New Delhi on Monday, with police saying the protesters did not have their permission to hold the protest.
"Any person violating these prohibitory orders shall be liable for prosecution," Delhi Police said in a statement.
Meanwhile, India's youth-led Cockroach Janta Party movement said on Monday a federal minister had promised the government would weigh its demands as thousands of protesters marched on parliament despite police efforts to scatter them with tear gas and cane charges.
The months-old movement and the protest are seen as the biggest public challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his third term, drawing millions of supporters on social media before broadening its appeal to opposition parties.
A police decision to forcibly move hunger-striking activist Sonam Wangchuk to hospital on Saturday galvanised a movement demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over examination paper leaks.
Members say the leaking of the papers for a national entrance test to medical school in May - which forced some 2 million students to resit, and led to some taking their own lives - was a sign of deep-seated corruption in education.
Thousands of young supporters gathered through the night at the protest site of Jantar Mantar in New Delhi for the march on the opening day of parliament's monsoon session.
"Quit, quit," the protesters chanted. "Dharmendra Pradhan quit", "Narendra Modi quit", they said in Hindi.
Earlier, hundreds of people led by the chief minister of Indian Kashmir shouted slogans and staged a protest in the capital Delhi on Monday, demanding statehood for the region, seven years after it was turned into a federal territory.
Protesters were stopped by police from staging their demonstration, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said in a post on X, which had videos and pictures of people holding posters and shouting slogans.
"This is only the beginning of our struggle for statehood, our rights, our dignity and everything that was taken away from us," Abdullah said in the post.
In August 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked Jammu and Kashmir state's partial autonomy, removed its statehood and divided it into two federally-controlled territories: Muslim-majority Kashmir with Hindu-dominated Jammu; and a Buddhist territory of Ladakh.
The government has since said statehood to the Himalayan region will be restored at the "appropriate time" but has not given a deadline.
Abdullah and his party, the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, have said statehood should be restored at the earliest, in keeping with the government's promise.
Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party leaders say the protest is an attempt to divert attention from what they call are governance failures of Abdullah's government.
India and Pakistan both claim Muslim-majority Kashmir in full, but ?rule it in part. India has long accused Pakistan of aiding separatists who have battled security forces in Indian Kashmir, accusations Islamabad denies.