SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Tens of thousands of young protesters in India have been demanding the resignation of that country's education minister, and today, they got the news they'd been waiting for.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #1: (Non-English language spoken).
(CHEERING)
SIMON: And that's the sound of demonstrators cheering after the minister posted his resignation letter on X. NPR's Omkar Khandekar joins us now from New Delhi. Thanks so much for being with us.
OMKAR KHANDEKAR, BYLINE: Thank you for having me.
SIMON: Omkar, what started this protest movement?
KHANDEKAR: So for weeks now, Indian youth have been demanding the resignation of its education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan. In May, questions for the entrance exam for India's medical colleges had leaked. This meant more than 2 million aspiring doctors had to retake the exam that they spent years prepping for. Now, such leaks have happened for years. So for many, this was the final straw.
Their protests started in early June, with a few hundred people at a protest site in Central Delhi. But since then, it seems like their number has multiplied every day. In fact, when I went to the Delhi protest site last night, it felt like a carnival. People were out on dates or with their families. They were chanting slogans, making videos for social media. Some wore Batman masks to evade surveillance cameras. And one group had reworked a popular love song to mock the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #2: (Non-English language spoken).
UNDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #2: (Non-English language spoken).
UNDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Non-English language spoken).
KHANDEKAR: So he's saying Modi has robbed the country. Modi has let down the students. And as one poster pointed out, and I quote, "they messed with the wrong generation."
SIMON: Omkar, you said this was the final straw for many of the protesters. What other issues have been fueling their demonstrations?
KHANDEKAR: So on the face of it, this is a protest for educational reforms. But folks also tell me that they are tired of the corruption, unemployment and the rising cost of living. Now, India has struggled to create jobs even before the Modi government was sworn in 12 years ago. But economist Rosa Abraham says this has been getting worse.
ROSA ABRAHAM: You know, there's this double burden that youngsters are bearing that even after a degree, they're not finding jobs and they're not finding jobs that pay well.
SIMON: How has Modi's government responded to the protests?
KHANDEKAR: Well, first, they vilified the protesters. The education minister even compared them to terrorists. When they marched to the Parliament earlier this week, security forces attacked them with tear gas, even pellet guns. Now, of course, those scenes were widely shared online and that triggered protests in other Indian cities.
So in his resignation letter today, Education Minister Pradhan said that he did not want the student anger to be exploited by what he called anti-national forces. He did not mention the dozens of students who were injured in the police violence, and he did not apologize for the paper leaks.
SIMON: Omkar, what should we expect next?
KHANDEKAR: The protest leaders - they want systemic reforms to prevent exam paper leaks and punishment for the policemen who attacked the protesters. The government has said that its ministers would meet with them today and hear them out. But this is among the rare times that the Modi government has yielded to public pressure. Political analyst Sushant Singh (ph) told me that the protesters have achieved something even more remarkable.
SUSHANT SINGH: The climate of fear, you know, in which a lot of Indians were operating - that you can't criticize Modi, etc. - that climate of fear is gone.
KHANDEKAR: He says this crowd cut across caste, class, religion and language. And that unity, he says, is something India hasn't seen in a long time.
SIMON: NPR's Omkar Khandekar, thanks so much for being with us.
KHANDEKAR: You're welcome, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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