NEW DELHI – Indian police on Tuesday detained opposition leader Rahul Gandhi during youth-led protests in New Delhi calling for education reforms, after he called for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resignation.
The Indian capital was rocked by a second day of demonstrations led by the fast-growing “cockroach” movement, which has demanded changes to the country’s education system and the resignation of the education minister after repeated testing scandals.
Thousands have turned out, with Monday’s marches culminating in violent clashes with police.
Gandhi, leader of the Congress Party, said on Tuesday that Modi must resign “for destroying the future of India’s youth”, before staging a sit-in outside the prime minister’s residence.
“The government doesn’t want to take any accountability, nor does it want to have a debate on it in parliament,” said Gandhi, the leader of the opposition in the lower house.
AFP video showed Gandhi and other lawmakers being forcibly bundled into a bus by police and removed from the area.
Police — some in body armour — appeared to hold the opposition leader by both arms and legs as they pushed through large crowds and into the nearby vehicle.
Chaotic scenes ensued as protesters appeared to try to board the bus before and as it sped away.
Gandhi shared images of his forced removal by security forces and said the demonstration would not stop.
Modi has not yet directly commented on the protests.
– Violent clashes –
On Monday, thousands poured into New Delhi’s streets to demand the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, heeding the call of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) online movement.
Protesters pelted security forces with stones after they fired tear gas and charged with batons, in the capital’s largest demonstrations in five years.
Police said 60 civilians were injured and another 118 police personnel were hurt.
“What happened yesterday is our Constitution got trampled upon,” Sandeep Dixit, a senior leader of the Congress party, told AFP.
“After that, no self-respecting politician or citizen can stand aside.”
The CJP vowed to press on with its demands for Pradhan’s removal as thousands of protesters remained camped at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar protest site on Tuesday, many of them calling for changes to the wider education system.
– Official silence –
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke urged protesters on Tuesday not to lose hope.
“They want to break our spirit,” he said, perched atop a lorry. “Do not let them silence you.”
Organisers condemned the “high-handedness” of the authorities and claimed hundreds of protesters had been injured — far more than the police tally.
“It’s a shameful day in the history of Indian democracy that people, honest students, who had come for a genuine issue were brutally beaten by the Delhi police,” CJP spokesman Ashutosh Ranka told AFP.
Ranka, who met senior minister JP Nadda on Monday, said the government had yet to respond to their demands.
Protesters said they would not relent.
“We have become even more fearless now,” said 25-year-old law student Chandra Pratap Sishwi.
“When I saw people being beaten up by the police like that, my blood boiled.”
Parliament was adjourned on Tuesday after the opposition benches demanded a discussion on the alleged “brutality unleashed on students”.
– Cockroach movement –
The rapidly expanding CJP has won millions of followers on social media since its launch in May, fuelling one of the biggest challenges to Modi since the Hindu nationalist leader won his third term in office in 2024.
The movement was born out of repeated school examination scandals that shook confidence in India’s testing system.
Some 2.2 million aspiring medical students sat for a re-examination under tight security last month after the previous test was scrapped following the leak of a question paper.
That came on top of another scandal related to the online marking of tests taken by nearly two million high school students.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju defended the government on Tuesday, saying it had acted swiftly after the exam paper leaks by arresting several people.
He said Modi had called for a “foolproof system” to prevent irregularities in the future at a closed-door meeting with his allies.