NEW DELHI – In the end, they won, the cockroaches. Simple and good guys, armed with irony, anger and a desire for a better future. Almost all of them took to the streets for the first time in their lives to ask the government, under the bizarre banners of the Cockroach Janta Party, or People’s Party of Cockroaches, for a strong signal of discontinuity in the failing school policies of recent years.
Read more PA, less than one in three measures contains a list of the changes introduced
Ask the Sun
Questions are automatically suggested by 24Ore AI
based on the displayed content.
And the desired signal arrived. In the early afternoon in Delhi, Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan gave in and sent his letter of resignation to the other big loser of the day, Narendra Modi, the most powerful and feared Indian premier since Indira Gandhi, who until a couple of days ago tried in every way to ignore the protests, making the demonstrators even angrier.
But by Friday it was already clear that resisting the demands of the students who had coalesced around a protest movement born on the web would be impossible. Too numerous, too angry about last Monday’s police violence, too unassailable, because ultimately what they had asked for in recent weeks was simple: accountability from the government and a fairer and more transparent school system.
Read more Calendario Pirelli 2027: India depicted with models and ordinary people
It all started with yet another rigged university entrance exam. More than 2 million people attempted it last May 3rd. Being part of that scarce 3% who earn the right to attend a medical college changes lives. But the discovery of a leak led to the cancellation and, according to Indian media, to the suicide of a dozen young people convinced they had done well and terrified at the prospect of not succeeding a second time, in what many academics call a lottery: not a way to select the best, but simply to thin the ranks of aspiring doctors.
This is to say that the level of anger and frustration among young Indians was already high when, a few days after the test cancellation, the Chief Justice of India, the country’s most senior judge, called the unemployed and angry young people “cockroaches,” thus becoming a symbol of the arrogance of an establishment detached from reality. Fuel on the fire of the discomfort of many young people who, in an India that is running, but not fast enough, do not find opportunities for growth.
Read more Justice, the CSM opens to Copilot on judicial acts
