On Friday, Indian youth-led “Cockroach Movement” leaders announced that they have held talks with the federal government regarding the nationwide exam question leak, and the government is set to respond to their demands on Saturday afternoon.
According to Reuters, the government side was represented by Federal Senior Ministers Jitendra Singh and Jagat Prakash Nadda; “Cockroach People’s Party” (CJP) spokespeople Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka participated in the meeting.
The leaders of the “Cockroach People’s Party” stated that they have clearly conveyed to the ministers that they will not accept any solution unless the Minister of Education, Dharmendra Pradhan, resigns, and warned that this would lead to wider protests.
Minister Nadda stated that the meeting took place in a cordial atmosphere, “They have presented three main demands. We have informed them that we will meet with them tomorrow afternoon to discuss these demands.”
Aside from demanding the resignation of Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan, the protesters also demanded the withdrawal of police cases against protesters and compensation for over a dozen students’ families. According to local media reports, these students committed suicide after the exam question leak incident in May.
On Thursday evening, Das announced the dialogue with the government. This decision came shortly after social activist Sonam Wangchuk ended his 26-day hunger strike protest, bringing hope of an end to the government-civil society standoff.
This youth-led movement has become the biggest challenge for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in recent years. The opposition has responded to the movement’s demands, disrupting the parliamentary “Monsoon Session” that began this week.
Meanwhile, in the heart of New Delhi at Jantar Mantar, thousands of protesters are chanting slogans as the crowd continues to swell. They insist on the resignation of the Minister of Education and holding accountable for the chaos in national exams.
“If we give up now, we are gambling with our children’s future,” protester Sudesh Singh stated.
The “Cockroach People’s Party” protests began with a satirical post on the internet, initially involving only a few hundred young people. However, after the nationwide medical college entrance exam question leak in May, the movement rapidly expanded, attracting millions of online followers.
By Monday of this week, tens of thousands of supporters of the “Cockroach Movement” held a protest march, defying orders and marching towards the parliament building, resulting in clashes with the police. Tear gas was used to disperse the crowd, and batons were used to drive away the protesters.
On Wednesday night, over ten thousand protesters gathered in central New Delhi for a demonstration, leading to renewed clashes between police and civilians.
On Thursday, the Indian government closed 16 metro stations in New Delhi and disrupted mobile internet services; simultaneously, commercial activities in the city center where protesters were camping were restricted.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation announced that starting Friday morning, another 17 stations would be closed until further notice. This marks the third large-scale shutdown this week.
On Friday morning, internet services in the area were once again disrupted, with intermittent or complete loss of connectivity.
Modi announced on Thursday evening that the federal cabinet would convene on Friday to discuss a proposed amendment aimed at punishing those responsible for exam question leaks and will promptly submit the proposal for parliamentary review.
However, the protesters rejected this proposal, believing that there should be fundamental reforms to the examination system to plug leaks.