India's 'cockroach' movement ousts minister, but can Modi calm youth?

Asia India's 'cockroach' movement ousts minister, but can Modi calm youth? July 25, 202610:48 AM ET By  Diaa Hadid ,  Omkar Khandekar A protester holds a placard after India's Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned following nationwide protests as part of the Cockroach Janta Party's protest movement in Mumbai, India on Saturday. Ashish Vaishnav/AP hide caption toggle caption Ashish Vaishnav/AP NEW DELHI — India's education minister tendered his resignation on Saturday, meeting a key demand of students whose anti-government protests swelled this week beyond the capital New Delhi and onto the streets of more than a dozen cities. The students held the minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, responsible for a series of leaks in nationwide exams for university seats or government jobs, which millions of students take every year. Asia India's Gen Z 'Cockroach People's Party' started as satire but is serious about change The protests posed the most serious challenge to the 12-year rule of India's Hindu nationalist prime minister Narendra Modi. For weeks, the government had ignored the protesters, then vilified them, with the education minister calling protest leaders "the B team of terrorists," according to the Indian daily The Hindu. Presenters of Modi-loyal media outlets suggested the protest leaders were paid by India's enemy and neighbor, Pakistan. In a two-page letter posted on X, Pradhan said he was resigning because he didn't want the students' anger to be exploited by "anti-national forces." He did not clarify what he meant by "anti-national forces," but it appeared to be a dig at insinuations that the protesters were led, or infiltrated by enemies of India. Pradhan did not apologize for the paper leaks. Sponsor Message Near the main protest site in New Delhi, streets echoed with cheering students. Abhijeet Dipke, a 30-year-old whose satirical group 'Cockroach Janta Party' has been leading the protests, fell to his knees on hearing the news. Then he raised...