Rahul Gandhi has slammed the use of force against demonstrators seeking the resignation of the education minister
Indian protesters demanding the resignation of the federal education minister received a boost from the country’s political opposition, which has questioned the use of brute force against the young people during Monday’s march to parliament.
The protests, spearheaded by India’s youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) movement, have gained widespread support from various political parties and activists after mobile phone videos of police violence were circulated online.
However, Delhi police pointed out that some protesters had resorted to violence, injuring scores of officers and igniting the clashes.
The protesters and Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi have demanded that federal Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who they hold responsible for the leak of exam answers for a national medical entrance test, must resign before any talks can be held with the government regarding their other demands.
“At least 152 paper leaks have taken place in the last 10 years with zero accountability,” Gandhi said. He, too, was detained by the police after an impromptu sit-in protest near Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence on Tuesday evening. News reports said he was seen bleeding from the nose when the police forcibly took him away.
LoP Shri @RahulGandhi and @INCIndia continue to shamelessly exploit students as political tools to manufacture disruption during the Monsoon Session of Parliament.
Shri @RahulGandhi and @INCIndia chose to stage a dharna outside the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s residence , causing…
Both houses of India’s Parliament were adjourned again on Wednesday over the issue.
Speaking at a press conference in the evening, federal Health Minister J.P. Nadda, who has tried to act as an interlocutor between the government and the protesters, said the nation’s leadership is ready for a discussion and that the opposition should not “change the goal post.”
“We should all work together to address this issue and move forward toward a lasting solution,” he said.
Modi’s party has called out the opposition, saying the question paper leak was addressed quickly by the government, the perpetrators were arrested, and a re-test was conducted successfully – all under Pradhan.
“The students of India deserve far better than to be treated as props in a political campaign,” Pradhan himself posted on X. “They deserve certainty over chaos, solutions over slogans, and responsibility over disruption.”
However, Abhijeet Dipke, founder and leader of the CJP, has vowed to continue the protest until the party’s demands are met.
Hundreds of young people were camped in the heart of Delhi on Wednesday around the protest site. Earlier in the day, CJP leaders refused to meet Nadda at his residence, instead demanding that the government’s representatives meet them at the protest site, or at a “neutral” venue.
Police blocked off several metro stations in central Delhi to prevent more people from converging at the site, and some reports said at least 2,000 more reserve police personnel were being flown into the capital to deal with the situation.
For a brief while, the CJP said, its Instagram account was blocked, apparently in response to a “legal request.”
