Twelve years, one month and 24 days after Narendra Modi was sworn in, the words “Modi must resign” were uttered full-throatedly for the first time – without fear, in front of witnesses and cameras – on the streets of the national capital.

India’s Gen Z is saying the unthinkable.

For more than a month, students, led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), have been camped out at Jantar Mantar, a prominent protest site in central New Delhi, seeking education reforms and the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. This week marked a significant escalation in the movement’s demands with students now also calling for the resignations of Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Modi has announced fast-track courts to deal with exam-leak cases, but the government has offered no apology for the police crackdown on protesters or indicated that officers accused of using excessive force will be investigated.

The CJP had called for a march on the Indian Parliament on Monday, the first day of the monsoon session. The government’s misstep was to forcibly take activist Sonam Wangchuk to Safdarjung Hospital on the 21st day of his hunger strike. He had not eaten since June 28 in support of the students’ demands. The forced hospitalisation drew even greater support for the students. “Unmobilised” people – those who had not been called on or directed by any organisation to join the protest – also started pouring in, trying to make their way to parliament.

More than 100,000 “cockroaches” streamed into central New Delhi, paying no heed to warnings from the Delhi Police or government decisions to close 16 metro stations leading to Jantar Mantar, barricade roads, jam the internet and bring in plainclothes goons. Still, people kept pouring in. Central New Delhi became a tinderbox, and students stood their ground, facing pellet guns and batons through heavy overnight rain and clouds of tear gas.

By the end of the march on parliament, at least 200 people had been injured. Police........

© Al Jazeera