Gandhi presses Modi to resign after India student protest crackdown

India's main opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi resign over a police crackdown on student protests calling for education reforms.

Gandhi, the Congress Party leader and leader of the opposition in the lower house of parliament, said on social media that Modi should resign for what he called the destruction of young people's future. He made the demand as he led a march with other lawmakers toward the prime minister's residence in New Delhi.

Gandhi said the government did not want accountability or a parliamentary debate on the issue. He later held a sit-in outside Modi's residence, where protesters shouted calls for justice and slogans against Modi. AFP journalists later saw Gandhi and other parliamentarians being put into a bus and taken away from the area.

The protest followed clashes in central New Delhi on Monday. Police said 60 protesters were injured, while Delhi Police said at least 118 police personnel were also injured. The rally was the biggest street protest in the capital in about five years, according to the source.

Thousands of people had gathered after an appeal by the online Cockroach Janta Party movement, known as CJP, demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Police fired tear gas and used batons. Protesters threw stones.

Senior Congress leader Sandeep Dixit told AFP that the events meant the constitution had been trampled on and said politicians and citizens could not stand aside.

The CJP said it would continue demanding Pradhan's removal. Thousands of protesters remained at the Jantar Mantar protest site on Tuesday, with many also calling for wider changes to the education system.

CJP spokesman Ashutosh Ranka said on social media that the movement would not stop until Pradhan was sacked. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke urged protesters not to lose hope. Protest organisers condemned what they called high-handedness by the authorities and said hundreds of protesters had been injured. Ranka, who met senior minister JP Nadda on Monday, said the government had not yet responded to their demands.

A 25-year-old law student, Chandra Pratap Sishwi, said protesters had become more fearless after seeing people beaten by police.

Parliament was adjourned on Tuesday after opposition lawmakers demanded a discussion on the alleged brutality against students.

The protests come amid public concern over examination scandals. About 2.2 million aspiring medical students sat for a re-examination last month after an earlier test was scrapped because of a leaked question paper. Another scandal concerned online marking for tests taken by nearly two million high school students.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju defended the government, saying it had acted quickly after the exam paper leaks by arresting several people. He said Modi had called for a foolproof system to prevent future irregularities during a closed-door meeting with allies on Tuesday.

Modi has not commented directly on the protests.