By Aftab Ahmed, Saurabh Sharma and Francis Mascarenhas
NEW DELHI, July 21 (Reuters) – India’s youth-led “cockroach” movement said on Tuesday it would continue its anti-government protest but will not march again, a day after scores of supporters were injured in clashes with police who tried to stop their march on parliament.
Delhi Police said nearly 180 people, including 118 security and police personnel and 60 protesters, were injured on Monday when they clashed in central Delhi.
The founder of the self-named Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) said more than 150 protesters were undergoing treatment in hospital.
Reuters could not independently verify the numbers of injured in Monday’s clashes, in which police beat protesters with batons and fired tear gas rounds to push them back.
Thousands of protesters from Delhi and nearby cities and towns had gathered to march on parliament, joining a movement that began as an online satire but has turned out to become the biggest challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his third term.
The months-old movement by the CJP has drawn the support of millions of young, Gen Z Indians who are demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over examination paper leaks that affected more than 2 million students in May.
It says the leaking of the papers for a national entrance test to medical school in May — which forced students to re-test, and led to some taking their own lives — was a sign of deep-seated corruption in education.
Seventy protesters had been detained and legal action would be initiated against them, police said in a statement late on Monday.
Nearly 500 protesters gathered at the Jantar Mantar protest site in central Delhi on Tuesday, chanting slogans amid a mild drizzle. Security remained tight with paramilitary personnel patrolling in some areas and barricades slowing traffic.
MOVEMENT LEADER APOLOGISES TO SUPPORTERS
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said the march on parliament was being called off as the group did not want more youth to be hurt and he apologised to supporters, especially women, who he said were beaten by male police officers.
“We will not march again because the police will hurt the youth again,” he told a press conference.
The Delhi Police said protesters had “displayed unruly, aggressive and violent behaviour” and “deliberately violated the prohibitory orders in force”, despite warnings on Monday.
The movement galvanized after the support of activist Sonam Wangchuk, who began a hunger strike on June 28, but was forcibly moved to a hospital by the authorities on Saturday.
“They beat us black and blue and they damaged our protest site,” Sahil Singh, a protester from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh told Reuters. “We want accountability to be set with Pradhan’s resignation.”
CJP said Health Minister J.P. Nadda sought time to discuss their demands within the government after a meeting with two leaders on Monday.
The demands include the release of Wangchuk, Pradhan’s resignation and compensation of 10 million rupees ($104,000) for each student who died by suicide following the leak. About a dozen students took their own lives after the exam paper leak, local media reported.
“I think when the talks are going on in a right direction, the atmosphere should not be vitiated,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said on Tuesday after Modi addressed lawmakers of his Bharatiya Janata Party.
The CJP’s surge in popularity reflects frustrations among young Indians including job shortages as well as exam leaks, which they say happen frequently.
Dipke and his supporters began a sit-in last month seeking Pradhan’s resignation. Some leaders from the opposition and social media influencers also joined the protest on Monday.
Analysts said even if the talks succeed in calming the protests, the underlying discontent among dissatisfied youngsters has the potential to present the most formidable challenge to Modi’s government going forward.
“This is an issue which affects everyone… any crackdown against the overwhelmingly peaceful protesters, as the government is wont to do, will only serve to fuel anger,” said Pearl Pandya, senior analyst for Asia Pacific at conflict monitoring research group ACLED.
(Reporting by Aftab Ahmed, Saurabh Sharma, Francis Mascarenhas, Rajesh Kr Singh, Sakshi Dayal and Hritam Mukherjee, writing by Tanvi Mehta and YP Rajesh; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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