Episode #14
News Talks podcast: How an exam leak led to the toppling of a government minister in India
We discuss why a leaked exam paper sparked mass protest in India, culminating in the resignation of a government minister and the promise of reform - - - The mass youth protests across India that ran through June and July have forced the resignation of former education minister Dharmendra Pradhan as well as extracting a series of conciliatory promises from prime minister Narendra Modi. But the spark for these protests which bought tens of thousands of students onto the streets of Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore under the banner of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), was the leaking and forced resit of the Indian medical college entrance exam. On this week’s episode of News Talks, we discuss why the leaked exam triggered such anger and despair among the Indian youth, how this led to the forming of the Cockroach Janta Party and why the protests were able to bring such huge numbers onto the street. Campus editor Miranda Prynne talks to Times Higher Education Asia reporter Rosalind Skillen about what sets the CJP apart from other protest groups faced down by Modi and the unique circumstances that led such a rapid escalation of events in a country with one of the biggest youth populations on the planet. Rosalind summarises the deeper tensions that lie behind the protests and gives the outlook for genuine long-term reform.
