CHALLENGE TO MODI
The protests have emerged as one of the biggest challenges to Modi since his re-election for a third term in office in 2024.
On Wednesday, crowds spilt out on streets outside the Jantar Mantar site, resulting in late-night clashes with police.
“Yesterday (Wednesday) Delhi Police cracked down heavily on protesters outside Jantar Mantar,” CJP spokesman Ashutosh Ranka said in a social media post.
The internet had been shut down and people “brutally” thrashed, he said.
Delhi Police said protesters attacked officers with stones and plastic bottles, causing “serious injuries”.
The protest movement has received a major boost from opposition parties who have been disrupting parliament proceedings and demanding an apology from Modi over Monday’s police action.
“You are the one who has harmed the future of our youth the most,” Rahul Gandhi of the Congress Party said on X on Thursday, referring to Modi.
“You allowed and encouraged the total capture and destruction of our education system – and protected every person responsible for it.”
The movement has spread beyond the capital, with smaller demonstrations springing up Wednesday in major cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru and Patna.
In neighbouring Bangladesh, students gave a call for a “torch rally” on Thursday evening to express their solidarity with protesters in Delhi.
Youth-led protests in Bangladesh in 2024 toppled the government of Sheikh Hasina and led to her ouster.
A series of exam irregularities in India have undermined trust in the testing system, including the leak of a medical entrance question paper that forced more than two million candidates to retake the test.
Another dispute involving the online marking of examinations taken by nearly two million high school students has further fuelled public anger.