Student protests in India have become a problem for Prime Minister Modi. Where did the 'cockroach' movement come from?
Clashes between members of the ruling party, the main opposition party, students, and police occurred in various Indian cities on Wednesday.
It all began with performances by the satirical 'People's Cockroach Party', which demanded the resignation of the education minister after the leakage of examination materials and the temporary blocking of Telegram by authorities, the BBC writes.
On Monday, thousands of supporters of the unofficial 'People's Cockroach Party' gathered in Delhi and attempted to march to parliament. This was followed by clashes with police, which, according to statements from both sides, resulted in approximately 60 protesters and 118 police officers being injured.
On Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi, heir to a prominent Indian political dynasty, and other leaders of the main opposition Indian National Congress (INC) party supported the 'Cockroach Party' and organized a march to the residence of Prime Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People's Party) leader Narendra Modi. There, clashes with police occurred, during which Gandhi and other INC leaders were forcibly detained, but later released.
On Wednesday, Gandhi demanded the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and an apology from Prime Minister Modi for the dispersal of a student demonstration on July 20.
On the same day, INC and BJP members held protests and marches in various Indian cities, where clashes occurred in several locations — both among themselves and with the police.
According to the Indian news agency PTI, in Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana state, two people, including a female police officer, were injured as a result of attempts by members of the two parties to march to their opponents' headquarters and police blocking them.
In Patna, the capital of Bihar state, BJP members marched to the INC headquarters, where opposition members attacked them, armed with bamboo sticks. Following this, the police intervened.
'Several people were bleeding profusely,' PTI reports.
Simultaneously in Patna, near the state parliament, a 'wall-to-wall battle between hundreds of students and police' occurred, as the agency writes. Some students breached the parliament grounds, causing its administration to lock the building with the deputies inside for a period.
In Vijayawada city in Andhra Pradesh state, INC and BJP members engaged in direct clashes.
A similar confrontation, involving barricades and police intervention, also occurred in Jammu city near the headquarters of the INC's Jammu and Kashmir state branch.
In Delhi, during the protest, the head of the INC's Delhi branch, Devender Yadav, and several of his associates were detained.
In Mumbai, during a march to the headquarters of the BJP's Maharashtra state branch, the head of the INC's state branch, Harshvardhan Sapkal, was detained along with several associates.
The 'People's Cockroach Party' is a satirical informal movement, created online by political strategist Abhijeet Dipke on May 16 of this year.
A day before this, India's Supreme Court Chief Justice Surya Kant called unemployed young Indians who pursue journalism or become political activists 'cockroaches' and 'parasites'.
In response to the wave of outrage, he explained that he only meant young people who obtain diplomas fraudulently. At that time, the Supreme Court was about to consider a relevant case.
The 'Cockroach Party' instantly gained hundreds of thousands of supporters and millions of followers on social media, and just a few weeks after its creation, it found a reason to 'go offline'.
In mid-June, a few days before the repeat national NEET-UG entrance exam for medical universities, Indian authorities temporarily blocked Telegram, fearing that the messenger could be used for cheating.
Before this, in early May, the results of the first exam were annulled due to a leak of examination papers. Opponents of the government — not only the 'Cockroach Party', but also the opposition, human rights activists, and ordinary internet users — criticized the ban, stating that the problem was not with one messenger or another, but with corrupt officials of the Ministry of Education who allowed the leak.
The 'People's Cockroach Party' called on its supporters to protest. Now, thousands of young people gather at its protest camp near the ancient Jantar Mantar observatory in central Delhi, and tens of thousands participated in the demonstration on July 20.
The 'Cockroach Party' demands the resignation of the education minister, as well as compensation of 10 million rupees (about 100 thousand dollars) to the families of those who committed suicide after the annulment of the first exam results.
The authorities are not yet ready to make concessions. A high-ranking government official told PTI on Wednesday that Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will not resign.
'The resignation of the education minister is not even being discussed. Such a question is not being considered at all. The minister cannot be blamed for the leak of exam papers, as he is not personally involved in it,' the agency's source said, adding that the re-examination, moreover, was successful.
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