Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has unveiled a series of fresh concessions aimed at calming widespread student unrest over examination paper leaks, as protesters prepared for a nationwide demonstration on Friday despite the government’s latest efforts to ease tensions.
In a rare late-night video message on Thursday, Modi acknowledged the seriousness of the crisis and pledged tougher action against those responsible for leaking public examination papers. He announced plans to establish fast-track courts to ensure swift justice and harsher punishment for offenders, while also removing the top civil servant in the education ministry by transferring the official to another department. However, Modi stopped short of dismissing Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, a key political ally whose resignation has become a central demand of the protest movement.
“I know a[n exam] paper leak is not a small issue,” Modi said. “For millions of students and parents it is deeply painful. That is why . . . we have taken several steps. Those guilty have been arrested and are in jail.”
The government’s latest concessions prompted a significant development when prominent human rights activist Sonam Wangchuk ended a 26-day hunger strike late on Thursday after meeting government ministers. Wangchuk said he was encouraged by the new measures, which also included a government commitment not to prosecute students facing charges for non-violent offences linked to a large demonstration held in New Delhi on Monday.
Despite those announcements, organisers of the youth-led “Cockroach” movement insisted that the nationwide protests would proceed as planned. Demonstrators said they intended not only to continue pressing for Pradhan’s dismissal but also to express solidarity with students who were beaten during Monday’s clashes with police.
“Students are no longer staying silent,” the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) said in a post on X. “This is not just a protest anymore — it’s a youth movement against a broken system.”
The demonstrations have emerged as one of the most significant domestic challenges confronting Modi during his 12 years in office. Although the prime minister continues to enjoy broad public support and has secured a series of regional election victories over the past two years, the student movement has rapidly gained momentum following growing anger over the handling of examination irregularities.
Authorities in New Delhi introduced extensive security measures ahead of Friday’s protests. Seventeen metro stations in central parts of the capital were closed, while barricades were erected around government districts near the planned protest site at Jantar Mantar, the historic 18th-century observatory that has long served as a venue for public demonstrations.
Delhi police also sought to link the unrest to foreign influence, stating on X that “480 Pakistan-based social media handles involved in co-ordinated misinformation campaigns were identified and blocked”. The force urged students “to be wary of such foreign accounts spreading rumours to mislead the situation”.
Businesses across the capital expressed concern over the possibility of renewed unrest, with many offices closing for the day. Their caution followed Monday’s demonstration, when tens of thousands of students protesting in New Delhi were repeatedly tear-gassed and struck with long wooden sticks by police.
The protest movement began in May after a leak of a national medical examination paper forced authorities to cancel the test after it had already been taken. The cancellation affected an estimated 2.2 million young people, many of whom had spent years preparing for the examination and invested considerable financial resources in private coaching and study.
Political pressure on the government has also intensified. This week, India’s main opposition parties publicly backed the student movement. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was detained by police for three hours on Tuesday night after attempting to stage a sit-in outside Modi’s official residence.
Writing in a newspaper article published on Friday, Congress party chair Sonia Gandhi accused Modi of treating students as “enemies of the nation” and argued that the government had overseen a decline in public education that had forced families to spend heavily on private tuition.
“The acute desperation of our students is a direct consequence of the privatisation and commercialisation of education,” she wrote.
