India’s Modi promises fast-track courts for exam fraud fuelling protests

Cockroach Janta Party protesters are occupying streets in New Delhi, demanding Education Minister Pradhan resign.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged to set up fast-track courts to punish those involved in examination paper leaks, offering his first public response to youth-led protests challenging his government.Demonstrations have grown across New Delhi after reported irregularities in national medical school entrance exams, leading this week to a crackdown by security forces.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Water cannon deployed at India education system protestslist 2 of 3India’s Rahul Gandhi speaks out after releaselist 3 of 3Indian police accused of using pellet guns in crackdown on India’s protestsend of listDemonstrators have occupied Parliament Street for three days with many camping on the key thoroughfare that connects Parliament House to Connaught Place, the Indian capital’s central commercial square.“Nothing is more important than the welfare and future of our youth!” Modi wrote on X on Thursday.“We have decided to set up fast-track courts to ensure swift and stringent punishment for those involved in paper leaks. … Those who try to harm the future of our youth will not be spared.”The unrest is organised under the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a satirical online movement formed in May that has evolved into a national platform demanding structural testing reforms and the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.Speaking to the Indian news agency ANI at the Jantar Mantar protest site in New Delhi, the CJP’s founding president, Abhijeet Dipke, accused outside agitators of instigating recent violence to discredit the demonstration.“People are being sent from outside to deliberately disrupt the protest,” Dipke told ANI. “We have been sitting here for a month. No such incident has happened. … Goons are being sent from outside … to deliberately incite people.”