SerpApi.Org
By Tanvi Mehta, Saurabh Sharma and YP Rajesh
NEW DELHI, July 23 (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday that "fast-track" courts would be set up to prosecute those behind exam paper leaks, his first public response after days of youth protests demanding the resignation of the education minister.
However, the protesters and opposition parties swiftly rejected Modi's proposal and insisted that Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan quit first, with opposition groups disrupting parliament for the fourth day this week.
Protesters clashed briefly with police on the streets of New Delhi late on Wednesday, with officers firing tear gas and wielding canes to push them back.
The protests have swelled into the biggest youth challenge to Modi since he came to power in 2014. Opposition parties have echoed the demands of the youth movement and have disrupted the monsoon session of parliament that began this week.
It marks the biggest political crisis of Modi's third term, which began in 2024.
"Nothing is more important than the welfare and future of our youth!" Modi posted on X.
"We have decided to set up fast-track courts to ensure swift and stringent punishment for those involved in paper leaks," he said, adding that those who try to harm the future of young people will not be spared.
Fast-track courts are designed to quickly process cases, circumventing India’s notoriously overburdened and slow justice system that can take years to conclude cases.
Such special courts have been set up to handle sex crimes against women and children, terrorism, money laundering, and crimes by lawmakers.
CJP, GANDHI NOT IMPRESSED BY ANNOUNCEMENT
The self-named Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) launched protests last month against the exam paper leaks that affected some 2 million students and have been linked to several suicides.
CJP spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka said what courts do after paper leaks is just one aspect.
"But Modi-ji, tell us why are paper leaks happening in this country in the first place?" he said, using the Hindi honorific.
"Fast-track courts are set up in this country for every other issue, but whether those fast-track courts have actually solved those issues — you know the answer to that question, and so do we."
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said their protest would continue until Pradhan resigned.
The leader of India's main opposition Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, said it was Modi who had most harmed the future of young people.
Opposition lawmakers held placards and shouted slogans seeking Pradhan's resignation outside the parliament building and then disrupted proceedings inside, forcing the chambers to be repeatedly suspended.
Lawmakers from Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies staged a counter-protest, calling for a discussion on examination paper leaks.
Modi's ministers said the opposition was not being sincere as it was not agreeing to a parliamentary debate on the subject.
Late on Wednesday, more than 10,000 people gathered at the Jantar Mantar protest site in central New Delhi, local media said. Some protesters attacked police with stones and plastic bottles, injuring a few officers who were taken to hospital, news agency ANI quoted Delhi Police as saying.
DELHI METRO SHUTS STATIONS
Thousands of protesters had returned to the site by Thursday afternoon, carrying anti-government posters and chanting slogans amid heavy security deployment.
Delhi Metro Rail Corp. said it was shutting 16 stations in and around central New Delhi on Thursday until further notice, the second such large-scale closure this week due to security concerns, inconveniencing thousands of commuters.
Responding to the sustained pressure from protesters, Modi's government has held one round of talks with CJP leaders and assured them that their demands will be considered and exam system reforms launched.
The CJP protests began as an online satire and involved only a few hundred young people when they were first launched.
The movement's surge in popularity reflects frustrations among young Indians over issues such as job shortages, as well as frequent exam leaks.
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.
(Reporting by YP Rajesh Tanvi Mehta, Shanima A, Sakshi Dayal, Saurabh Shrama, Aftab Ahmed, Anushree Fadnavis and Rajesh Kr Singh; Editing by Michael Perry and Gareth Jones)
