India: Youth-led 'Cockroach' protests increase pressure on Modi's government

With each passing day, India's youth-led cockroach movement seems to swell. As the sit-in by anti-corruption campaigners grows in central Delhi, opposition lawmakers relaying their call for the education minister to resign over the leaking of exam tests. The standoff growing with the Supreme Court refusing to hear a police brutality petition launched after Monday's crackdown on those who tried to reach Parliament. 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, 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. For more, let's cross to the Indian capital and correspondent Sara Jacob. Sara, what's the latest? Well, defying the government, protesters continue to sit in at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. According to reports on social media from protesters on the ground, they're saying they can see a visible increase in the number of security personnel deputed there. We're also hearing that at least 16 metro stations in and around that protest area have been shut down. The government has cited security concerns for this, but really what this would mean is that it would make it very hard for anybody wanting to join the protests to do so. In parliament today, the update is that opposition MPs, to show solidarity with the protesters, arrived in parliament wearing black. And really there has been no response or there's no news yet about the government's reaction to the demands by the protesters that were put down in a letter that they submitted to the health minister when they met with him, yes, about 24 hours ago. But really the sketchy details that we are able to provide in response to your question is a story in itself. It tells a story of India today. Normally, when you see protests of such size, of such a size, you would see it covered back to back extensively by the mainstream media. But this time round, this really has exposed a story about a complete lack of belief in the mainstream media. Protesters on the ground say that the mainstream media, they're really just lapdogs of this government. They're just voices of the government. They say that for the past few weeks while they've been protesting, the mainstream media has not shown up to cover their story in an attempt to undermine them, to show that they're not really significant. And now that the mainstream media has shown up, they're being booed and ushered out of the protest sites with a chance of them being Modi media. It's really snowballed since Monday when there was that crackdown on those protesters who tried to march on Parliament. It's getting traction. Tell us why. Well, the Congress, the cockroach Janata Party really, which the government will try and say that they are agents of the opposition or the Congress Party, but this party, the cockroach Janata Party really has struck a chord with the youth of India who are dissatisfied with the state of joblessness in the country. And they feel that they're just not heard by this government. Now, India is the world's fastest, largest, fastest growing economy. But the youth of India clearly seem to feel disconnected from this growth story. India is also the world has the world's largest, youngest economy, and that is said to be is called or defined as a youth dividend, right, a labor dividend. But this government, the Modi government is now realizing that unless this translates into the youth graduating from schools and classrooms and colleges into offices with decent jobs, jobs that match their aspirations, jobs that can provide for their families going forward and be able to send their kids to schools, it really doesn't mean much. So this this protest really by the cockroach Janata Party seems to have touched a chord with the youth. It seems to have its finger on the pulse of how the youth across India feels because we are now seeing reports of such cockroach Janata Party protests, even in other states across India. Sir, Jacob reporting live there from Delhi. Many thanks for that update.