India's Rahul Gandhi released after protest detention

NEW DELHI, India: India’s opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has been released after being detained outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence as part of education system protests that have pushed into Wednesday.

The demonstrations, led by the social media-driven Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) movement, have emerged as one of the biggest challenges to Modi’s government since his re-election in 2024, with protesters demanding Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation and broader reforms to the examination system.

Gandhi had staged a sit-in protest on Tuesday, accusing the government of ignoring students demands and condemning a police crackdown on demonstrations in New Delhi a day earlier.

Pradhan, facing growing pressure over the handling of examination controversies, said late Tuesday the government remained committed to reform.

“We owe them (students) answers, reforms and accountability,” he said in a social media post.

“That is exactly what our government remains committed to delivering,” he said in his first comments since Monday’s street protest.

The protest turned violent when demonstrators hurled stones at security forces who fired tear gas and charged into with batons, in the capital’s largest protests in five years.

Police said 60 civilians were injured and another 118 police personnel were hurt.

Protests were also held in Mumbai and Bengaluru, drawing hundreds of people.

On Wednesday, hundreds remained camped at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar protest site as the CJP vowed to continue its campaign, which entered the third day.

“Cockroaches are alive,” it said in a social media post, describing Pradhan as “incompetent”.

The CJP has attracted millions of followers on social media since its launch in May, presenting one of the biggest challenges to Modi since the Hindu nationalist leader secured a third term in 2024.

The protests follow a series of controversies that have undermined trust in India’s testing system, including the leak of a medical entrance examination paper that forced more than two million candidates to retake the test.

Another dispute involving the online marking of examinations taken by nearly two million high school students has further fuelled public anger.