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By Tanvi Mehta, Anushree Fadnavis and YP Rajesh
NEW DELHI, July 22 (Reuters) - Opposition parties staged a protest at parliament on Wednesday demanding the resignation of India's education minister, echoing the demands of student demonstrators, before entering the chambers and forcing the suspension of proceedings.
The protests, which started last month over the leak of medical school entrance exam papers that affected some 2 million students, grew this week into the biggest youth challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he came to power in 2014.
Tens of thousands of young protesters took to the streets of New Delhi on Monday, clashing with police who used tear gas and batons to push them back.
Opposition lawmakers led by Rahul Gandhi gathered outside the parliament building in New Delhi on Wednesday, many dressed in black and waving placards calling on Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to quit.
"Our children's future is not for sale", "Save lives, Stop NEET", the placards read, referring to the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, as the medical school test is called.
They also shouted slogans against Modi and Pradhan.
Once inside parliament, opposition lawmakers demanded a debate on alleged police violence against student protesters and on the exam paper leak, forcing a temporary suspension of proceedings. Modi and Pradhan have said they are willing to debate the issue and broader education reforms.
On Tuesday, Gandhi's main opposition Congress party launched a sit-in outside the gates leading to Modi's residence. Police detained Gandhi, his sister Priyanka Vadra, and several other senior opposition leaders after they refused to end their protest, but released them late on Tuesday.
PROTESTS SPREAD TO SEVERAL CITIES
The protests by the self-named Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) began as an online satire and involved only a few hundred young people when they were first launched.
On Wednesday, more than 1,000 protesters gathered at the Jantar Mantar protest site of the cockroach movement in Delhi, shouting slogans, waving the Indian flag and braving a drizzle. Media reports said CJP leaders were due to hold a second round of talks with a senior government minister since Monday.
Security remained high in the capital, and the Delhi Metro Rail Corp. said it was shutting 16 stations in the central areas until further notice due to security concerns.
The protests have also spread outside the capital, with demonstrations by youth and opposition groups being held in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Goa, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram, Jammu and Ahmedabad.
Late on Tuesday, Pradhan, in his first comments since demands for his resignation were made, said that the government was committed to addressing the concerns of protesting youth and exam reforms.
"Our government remains 100% committed to discussing NEET and addressing every genuine concern of our youth on the floor of the House," he said in a post on X.
"The students of India deserve far better than being treated as props in a political campaign," he said, referring to Gandhi's protest.
Pradhan, 57, is a senior leader of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party and has been regarded as a rising figure, with his name even mentioned to lead BJP in the past.
A minister since Modi first took office in 2014, he has held the petroleum and natural gas, steel, skill development and education portfolios, becoming education minister in 2021. His father was also a veteran BJP leader and served as a junior federal minister between 1998 and 2004.
Modi and BJP have not responded to demands for his resignation, which analysts say indicates his importance in the party.
The CJP's surge in popularity reflects frustrations among young Indians over issues such as job shortages, as well as exam leaks, which they say happen frequently.
It has also given opposition parties a rare opening to pressure Modi and his BJP, which counts young voters as a core base and has won a series of state elections since a shock result in the 2024 election, when Modi did not win an outright parliamentary majority.
The CJP movement gained momentum from the support of activist Sonam Wangchuk, who began a hunger strike on June 28, but was forcibly moved to a hospital by police on Saturday.
On Tuesday, he was moved to a private hospital following a court order in response to a petition from his wife that alleged he had been illegally detained.
"Student-led protests ... risk spiralling into a larger political and social challenge for the Modi government, as it has touched a raw nerve among a young, growing workforce that is struggling to find jobs," said Shumita Deveshwar, chief India economist at consultancy TS Lombard.
(Reporting by YP Rajesh, Tanvi Mehta, Sakshi Dayal, Shilpa Jamkhandikar, Aftab Ahmed and Anushree Fadnavis; Editing by Michael Perry)
