The mass youth protests across India that ran through June and much of July have forced the resignation of former education minister Dharmendra Pradhan as well as extracting a series of conciliatory promises from prime minister Narendra Modi.
But the spark for these protests, which brought tens of thousands of students on to the streets of Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru under the banner of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), was the leaking and forced resit of the Indian medical college entrance exam.
On this week’s episode of News Talks, we discuss why the leaked exam triggered such anger and despair among the Indian youth, how this led to the forming of the Cockroach Janta Party and why the protests were able to bring such huge numbers on to the streets.
Campus editor Miranda Prynne talks to Times Higher Education Asia reporter Rosalind Skillen about what sets the CJP apart from other protest groups more easily dismissed by Modi and the unique circumstances that led to the rapid escalation of events in a country with one of the biggest youth populations on the planet. Rosalind summarises the deeper tensions that lie behind the protests and gives the outlook for genuine long-term reform.
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