Indian students vow to continue 'cockroach movement' protests despite crackdown

Members from across the political opposition were seen dressed in black as they stood in front of the Indian Parliament on Wednesday. The gesture symbolising dissent comes a day after figures including the Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi were forcibly detained for staging a sit-in in front of the Prime Minister's residence. They had been demanding accountability after police fired tear gas and baton-charged unarmed protesters on Monday who had been calling for the country's education minister to go. Our duty is to stand with them. Our duty is to raise our voice in their support and our duty is to fight for our democracy and we will do it. The protests in New Delhi shows no signs of slowing down even after the education minister put out a statement saying the government would debate the issue of medical exams in Parliament. The demonstrations have proven to be the biggest youth challenge the Prime Minister has faced since coming to power in 2014. And while Narendra Modi has opted to remain silent, after Monday's heavy-handed crackdown, protesters say they won't back down. If the government doesn't agree, millions more will come to Delhi because this time we'll not hold back, we'll not stay silent. We have seen too much, we have witnessed too much, we have experienced too much. On 20th July, the way the police behaved, we have seen it all now. So the government really needs to get its act together otherwise the youth of this country is going to take them down. The social contract between the people who have been elected and the electors is completely broken because the government does not listen to the demands of the youth who are facing highest joblessness, unemployment levels. The entire education sector which concerns the future of this country is in shambles. On Wednesday, authorities announced the closure of 16 metro stations in the Indian capital due to security concerns. But according to Amnesty International, that move, along with reports of phone services being jammed, restricts the right to assemble peacefully. The cockroach party started as a satirical campaign after a derogatory statement from India's Chief Justice towards the country's unemployed youth. On Wednesday, the nation's highest-ranking judge said the Supreme Court didn't have time to waste to go through videos of alleged police brutality towards unarmed protesters, a statement that's likely to infuriate the movement even further.