Thousands Protest in New Delhi After Chief Justice’s ‘Cockroach’ Remark, Demand Education Minister’s Resignation
A satirical group founded after a chief justice’s remark held a protest Saturday demanding the education minister step down. The demonstration followed the voiding of a medical school entrance exam last month.
SemaforThousands of young demonstrators gathered in New Delhi on Saturday under the banner of the Cockroach Janta Party to demand the resignation of India’s education minister. The party was founded by a recent Boston University graduate after India’s chief justice compared young unemployed Indians to cockroaches. The protest marked the first large public action by the group, which began as satire.
Anger over employment prospects intensified last month when officials voided a medical school entrance exam after a leak was discovered. The decision set millions of applicants back in their career timelines. Scroll reported that the protesters were “disillusioned with the institutions of the republic itself” amid a difficult job market and rising living costs.
Investors are monitoring whether the movement expands to the scale of other youth-led protests that have occurred elsewhere in Asia.
