- Disruptions in digital payments affect sellers and restaurants.
- Modi promises strict action against those behind exam fraud.
- Congress leader Rahul Gandhi demands Pradhan’s removal.
NEW DELHI: The Indian government has ordered telecom companies to disable mobile data services in central areas of the capital Delhi, in and around the site of youth protests seeking the resignation of the education minister, two sources said. Reuters on Thursday.
The companies have complied with the order, the sources said.
Spokespeople for the government and the telecommunications department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reuters.
Major Indian telecom companies, billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Idea, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
There was no mobile data connectivity in many parts of central Delhi on Thursday afternoon. Reuters the journalists said. Vendors, merchants and restaurants complained that they could not accept digital payments.
Earlier today, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) rejected Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government’s response to the ongoing document leak controversy, announcing that it will continue its protest until the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
In a statement, CJP spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka said it was a positive development that the prime minister had finally taken notice after almost a month and a half of protests. “Maybe his foreign visits are over and he’s back in India, which is good.” Indian Press Trust he quoted Ranka as saying.
Reiterating the party’s stand, Ranka demanded Pradhan’s resignation and said protests would continue until accountability was established. “We will not leave this place until Dharmendra Pradhan resigns,” he said.
He questioned the effectiveness of imposing punishments after the exams have already been leaked. “What punishment are they going to impose after the paper leak has already occurred? That’s not going to solve the problem of paper leaks. The real question is why paper leaks occur in the first place. That question needs to be answered,” Ranka said.
Earlier in his social media post, Modi said, “Nothing is more important than the well-being and future of our youth,” and promised to set up fast-track courts to punish those involved in the leak of interrogation documents.
‘Looting Dharmendra Pradhan’
Meanwhile, main opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi also responded by quoting Modi’s post and saying that it was the prime minister who had damaged the future of our youth the most.
“You allowed and encouraged the total capture and destruction of our education system and protected all those responsible for it,” Gandhi said and reiterated that Pradhan should be sacked, Modi should apologize to the students and those who assaulted them should be punished.
Protesters led by the “cockroach” movement have been camping in central Delhi since last month, demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the exam leak in May that affected about 2 million students.
Protests multiplied on Monday after police fired tear gas and baton-charged tens of thousands of protesters trying to march on parliament on the opening day of the monsoon session.
As tensions rose, protesters responded by throwing stones, marking the largest street demonstration in the capital in about five years.
According to police, at least 178 people, including security personnel, were injured in the violence.
The CJP, which has millions of followers on social media, initially emerged in May as a satirical response to Chief Justice Surya Kant allegedly comparing youth to “cockroaches” and “parasites” during a court hearing.
The movement has since expanded its agenda to include concerns about unemployment, opportunities for youth and what it describes as Modi’s increasingly authoritarian style of governance.
The protests have become one of the biggest challenges for Modi since his re-election for a third term in 2024.
A series of exam irregularities have undermined confidence in India’s testing system, including the leak of a medical entrance questionnaire that forced more than two million candidates to retake the exam.
Another dispute involving the online grading of exams taken by nearly two million high school students has further fueled public anger.
