Police attack Cockroach activists as thousands march on Indian parliament

More than 10,000 protesters braved tear gas and baton charges in their largest challenge yet to PM Modi’s government.Police have fired tear gas and attacked supporters of the youth-led Cockroach movement with canes and baton charges as more than 10,000 marched towards India’s parliament in New Delhi in the largest protest yet demanding the resignation of the education minister and a crackdown on corruption in the exam system.The march on Monday by the protesters who ironically call themselves the Cockroach Janta Party to mock the name of the ruling party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was even bigger than expected, with numbers swelled by anger at Saturday’s forcible hospitalisation of veteran 59-year-old activist Sonam Wangchuk, who has been on hunger strike for three weeks in solidarity with the movement.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3India’s ‘Cockroach’ movement camps out until education minister resignslist 2 of 3Indian activist Wangchuk urged to end hunger strike over exam paper leakslist 3 of 3India’s cockroach politics is no jokeend of listAs they marched, the protesters chanted slogans calling for Modi and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to quit.Modi’s government, shaken by the emergence of the Cockroach movement in May, offered a minor concession by inviting two activists to meet a senior cabinet minister for talks.“The ⁠government had reached out for talks ⁠in the morning,” chief party spokesperson Saurav Das said in a post on ⁠X. “Our ⁠demands are ⁠clear. The youth has gathered in huge ‌numbers.”But later in the day the movement said its founder Abhijeet Dipke had been detained by police.Thousands of activists gathered overnight at the Jantar Mantar, a park in the heart of New Delhi housing 18th century astronomical devices which has become a focal point for the protest. As they began their march in the morning, police soon began trying to disperse the demonstration, which coincides with the first day of the monsoon session of parliament.