Chaotic scenes played out on the streets of New Delhi on Monday, as security forces used tear gas and batons to disperse tens of thousands of people marching on the Parliament in one of the largest protests against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in years.
The protest in the Indian capital, largely fueled by young people, was called to demand the resignation of the country’s education minister after botched college entrance exams that have disrupted the lives of millions of students.
A smiling Mr. Modi, who arrived to open a session of the Parliament, tried to project an image of calm. He did not address the protesters’ demands directly, even as security forces struggled to hold back the crowds spilling onto the roads leading to the building.
By day’s end, the police crackdown, in which protesters were beaten up, appeared to have dispersed much of the crowd. The exact number of protesters injured was not clear, but Indian media reported that over 100 people had been brought to two hospitals in Delhi.
Police officials told Indian news outlets that at least 50 of their personnel were also injured.
Over 60 protesters were arrested, according to lawyers who were rallying legal help for them.
Mr. Modi’s response has so far remained consistent with his decade-old position that his ministers are not answerable to public pressure.
But the size and force of the protests may indicate that his ruling party has underestimated the raw anger among young people in India, particularly after recent student movements in neighboring Bangladesh and Nepal toppled governments.
His image as a strongman may also be showing cracks.
Television channels friendly to Mr. Modi, which had largely ignored the buildup to Monday’s protest, broadcast footage of panic around the Parliament as security guards ran around holding the line with water cannons and tear gas. On social media, a space where Mr. Modi’s ruling party has enjoyed outsize influence, the Gen-Z protesters appeared to be breaking through, with memes and livestreams of the protests and the police crackdown.
“The apathy the government is showing us is shameful,” said Anshul Yadav, 20, who attended the protests on Monday with two friends. “The government should come talk,” he said. “Education is important.”
Public anger over the exam scandal has been simmering since May, when more than two million students who took India’s biggest entrance exam for medical school found out that the results would be scrapped because the questions had been leaked and that they would have to retake the test.
Such leaks have become a frequent problem in recent years, and news reports in India that some students have died by suicide because of the stress have intensified the outrage. The movement has since grown into broader discontent over the failings of the Indian education system and the lack of accountability in governance.
The movement gained momentum over the weekend after the police forcibly removed Sonam Wangchuk, a prominent activist who had been on hunger strike at the protest site for more than 20 days. The police said that they had moved him to a hospital for court-ordered essential medical care, despite opposition from his family and fellow protesters.
Running the Barricades
On Monday morning, crowds chanting slogans against Mr. Modi poured into the Jantar Mantar area, a protest site not far from the Parliament. The streets were jammed with mostly young people, many saying that they had come from other parts of India. They tried to push their way to the site through heavy barricades. In some areas, the police welded tall barricades to stop the protesters from moving toward the Parliament.
By Monday afternoon, a senior member of Mr. Modi’s cabinet, J.P. Nadda, met with representatives of the movement, the first such outreach since the protests began. The movement’s leaders have issued three specific demands: the immediate resignation of the education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan; the discharge from the hospital of Mr. Wangchuk; and compensation for the families those students who died by suicide.
Mr. Pradhan is seen as close to Mr. Modi, having played an important role in recent victories by his Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., in key state elections. The education minister has previously brushed the protesters aside, calling them “the B-team of terrorists.”
Mr. Nadda, in a statement, confirmed having met “in a cordial atmosphere,” but offered no sign of what the government response to the demand would be. “I have requested all the protesters to end their sit-in and assist the administration in restoring normalcy,” he said.
On the streets, the police continued to chase away protesters.
“Seeing the brutality with which peacefully protesting youth are being dealt with, I have decided to continue my fast,” Mr. Wangchuk, who has been held at a hospital against his will, said in a statement.
Protest leaders said that the police had destroyed the stage where Mr. Wangchuk lay during his fast and which had become their gathering point, but that they were regrouping again late in the evening. “We won’t leave Jantar Mantar until education minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigns,” said one of the leaders, Ashutosh Ranka.
Angry Students
The protesters accuse Mr. Pradhan of doing little to fix an education system that can be corrupt, lax and inefficient. The latest example — the cancellation of the entrance exams to medical school because the question papers were leaked and sold — affected millions of students.
Such tests can be a ticket to a better life, whether for higher education or for a coveted government job. Many families sell land or borrow money to pay for private tutoring to give students a chance of success.
One doctoral student, Priyam Dubey, 26, said he had been in schoolin 2024 when exam questions were leaked. After taking an entrance exam for a fellowship that could fund his graduate degree, he was told that it had been scrapped and that he had to sit for it again.
“I gave in the paper, it went really well and next morning when I woke up, the paper got leaked and they canceled the examination,” he said. “I didn’t want to prepare again.”
He said no one was being held accountable for what young people like him often go through.
As the crowds built up, the internet became inaccessible in the protest area.
Sreelakshmi Sreevalsam, 37, traveled to Delhi from Bengaluru to “make things audible to the government,” she said. Ms. Sreevalsam, a project manager at a financial technology company, met up with two friends on Monday morning for the protests.
“I want to be on the right side of history,” she said.
Bharati Ghosh, a B.J.P. spokeswoman, said on Sunday night that the police had arrested those responsible for the leaks and that the law would take its course. “The B.J.P. government senses, understands and responds to its people,” she said. “We are not sensing that the entire country is angry or frustrated.”
Amit Malviya, who is in charge of the ruling party’s social media wing, tried to downplay the scale of the protest.
“This hardly looks like a protest that enjoys support beyond professional agitators and ideological groups,” he said on X.
Rare Dissent
The space for protest and dissent in India’s traditionally raucous democracy has shrunk significantly during Mr. Modi’s 12 years in office. His government has cracked down on dissent and put activists behind bars, creating a chilling effect on public opposition.
The current protest was started by the Cockroach Janta Party, a grass-roots movement founded just two months ago that has come to symbolize the anger among India’s youth. It started in response to a rant by India’s chief justice comparing the country’s unemployed youth with cockroaches and parasites. In June, the party announced a sit-in demanding accountability over the exam leaks.
When the crowds filled the area around the protest site on Monday morning, the movement’s social media handles posted: “A flood of hundreds of thousands of cockroaches.”
Anupreeta Das, Alex Travelli, and Hari Kumar contributed reporting.
