JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
In India this morning, thousands of young people called for a revolution.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Speaking Hindi).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS #1: (Speaking Hindi).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Speaking Hindi).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS #1: (Speaking Hindi).
SUMMERS: They clashed with riot police near India's Parliament in one of the capital's worst confrontations in recent years. A note, you will hear sounds of tear gas and a panicked crowd. Here's NPR's Omkar Khandekar in New Delhi.
OMKAR KHANDEKAR, BYLINE: Seventeen-year-old Mohammed Nasir is running from a cloud of smoke, tears streaming from his eyes. He says he was marching to Parliament with hundreds of others when the police fired tear gas shells.
MOHAMMED NASIR: (Speaking Hindi).
KHANDEKAR: Then, he says, the police caned their feet and their skulls. As we talk...
NASIR: (Speaking Hindi).
(SOUNDBITE OF EXPLOSION)
KHANDEKAR: ...A fresh tear gas shell assaults our eyes and nose, and Nasir disappears in the crowd. Scenes like these played out across Central Delhi on Monday as thousands of protesters marched for the resignation of India's education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan. They accuse him of years of mismanagement of entrance exams for universities and government jobs. The questions for these exams were leaked ahead of the tests, which forced millions of students to retake them.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS #2: (Speaking Hindi).
KHANDEKAR: This was an escalation of weeks of peaceful demonstrations by the Cockroach Janta Party, a satirical online movement turned real-world political force. It drew widespread support from millions of Indian Gen Zers, like Amit Goyat, a student who aspires to join India's bureaucracy one day.
AMIT GOYAT: Intolerant, ignorant or insensitive (speaking Hindi).
KHANDEKAR: He says the government has stopped listening to the youth and started acting like dictators. Delhi police denied violence. Neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor the education minister has responded to today's clashes. But during an interview a few weeks ago, Pradhan compared the protesters to terrorists. Political analyst Bhanu Joshi says the government appears defiant because it doesn't want to set a precedent.
BHANU JOSHI: If you sack a minister under pressure, that would create a template. And this government has almost never conceded to protest.
KHANDEKAR: Students like Amit Goyat say the protests won't end until their demands are met. And if the government refuses to listen...
GOYAT: (Speaking Hindi).
KHANDEKAR: Goyat says they can vote them out too.
Omkar Khandekar, NPR News, New Delhi. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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