By Saurabh Sharma, Aftab Ahmed, Bhawika Chhabra and YP Rajesh
NEW DELHI, July 24 (Reuters) – Leaders of India’s youth-led “cockroach” movement will meet the government on Friday to try and resolve a face-off over national examination paper leaks although they will not halt nationwide protests, a spokesperson for the group said.
The decision was announced hours after activist Sonam Wangchuk ended a 26-day hunger strike overnight, raising hopes that the two sides could be moving toward a breakthrough in the crisis in which tens of thousands of angry youth have converged on the capital Delhi to demand the resignation of the education minister over the scandal.
The protests represent the biggest youth challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he came to power in 2014. Opposition parties have echoed the movement’s demands and have disrupted the monsoon session of parliament that began this week.
Talks between government ministers and leaders of the self-named Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) would be held at a neutral venue, CJP spokesperson Saurav Das told reporters overnight.
“We hope that the government comes with an open mind and it will listen to the people of this country who have been out on the roads for so long,” he said. “We will explain our demands to them in greater detail. And we hope that the government will listen to us.”
The nationwide protests would, however, continue, Das added.
“We are not backing out,” he said. “Because, real awakening starts from the grassroots and that is what we really need.”
PROTESTERS INSIST ON RESIGNATION OF EDUCATION MINISTER
There was no new comment from the government on the talks but a senior minister said on Thursday that the government was always open for talks, for however long it would take and that it would not “stand on prestige”.
Young men and women at the protest site of Jantar Mantar in central Delhi, however, said they would continue to insist on the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to fix accountability for the mess in the national examinations.
“We will continue to protest till Dharmendra Pradhan is terminated,” said Sudesh Singh, as thousands of protesters chanted slogans and the size of the crowd grew slowly. “He should not be given another position. If we stop here, then we will compromise the future of our children.”
The protests by the CJP began as an online satire and involved only a few hundred young people when they were first launched. But it grew to pull in millions of online followers after the cancellation of a national medical college entrance test in May after the question paper was leaked, affecting about 2 million students.
Tens of thousands of supporters of the movement marched on parliament in violation of a ban on Monday and clashed with police when they pushed them back with tear gas and beat them with canes.
Violence was reported again on Wednesday night when more than 10,000 protesters gathered at the protest site in central Delhi.
The movement’s surge in popularity reflects frustrations among young Indians over issues such as job shortages, as well as frequent exam leaks, analysts say and warn that the government should effectively address the crisis.
DELHI METRO SHUTS STATIONS, MOBILE INTERNET DISRUPTED
On Thursday, authorities shut 16 metro stations, mobile internet services and curtailed business in central Delhi where the protesters have been camped – seen as an attempt to curb the demonstrations – inconveniencing thousands of people.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corp. said it was shutting down 17 stations again from early on Friday morning until further instructions, the third time this week it has resorted to such a large-scale closure of the system which is the lifeline of the capital.
Mobile internet services in the area were disrupted again on Friday morning, with Reuters journalists reporting patchy or no connectivity.
The federal cabinet will meet on Friday and discuss a draft to amend laws to punish culprits behind exam paper leaks and get it approved by parliament at the earliest, Modi said late on Thursday.
But the protesters have rejected the proposal saying the examination system should be fixed to prevent leaks in the first place.
Youth-led, street protests in neighbouring Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal have brought down governments in recent years and Modi’s government should go beyond words to engage with protesters and address their anxieties, analysts say.
Although national elections are due only by April 2029, key states like the most populous, Uttar Pradesh, run by Modi’s party, his home state of Gujarat, and Punjab, vote next year and the anti-government sentiment could have an impact, they warn.
The movement has also seen a sharp spike in invective, online criticism, jokes and memes targeting Modi, a nationalist leader with a large, popular following. This indicates less fear of Modi, whose supporters quickly, often angrily, spring to his defence, analysts say.
(Reporting by YP Rajesh, Tanvi Mehta, Saurabh Sharma, Shanima A, Anushree Fadnavis, Aftab Ahmed, Bhawika Chhabra, Aditya Kalra; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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