Police have fired tear gas and attacked supporters of the youth-led Cockroach movement with canes and baton charges as more than 10,000 marched towards India’s parliament in New Delhi in the largest protest yet demanding the resignation of the education minister and a crackdown on corruption in the exam system.

The march on Monday by the protesters who ironically call themselves the Cockroach Janta Party to mock the name of the ruling party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was even bigger than expected, with numbers swelled by anger at Saturday’s forcible hospitalisation of veteran 59-year-old activist Sonam Wangchuk, who has been on hunger strike for three weeks in solidarity with the movement.

As the protesters marched, they chanted slogans calling for Modi and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to quit.

“This rotten system refuses to take action,” said yoga teacher Jyoti Rajput. “It cannot see the pain of students, and that’s why so many people have joined this movement.”

Modi’s government, shaken by the emergence of the Cockroach movement in May, offered a minor concession by inviting two activists to meet Health Minister JP Nadda for talks.

“The ⁠government had reached out for talks ⁠in the morning,” chief party spokesperson Saurav Das said in a post on ⁠X. “Our ⁠demands are ⁠clear. The youth has gathered in huge ‌numbers.”

Thousands of activists had gathered overnight at the Jantar Mantar, a park in the heart of New Delhi housing 18th century astronomical devices which has become a focal point for the protest. As they began their march in the morning, police soon began trying to disperse the demonstration, which coincides with the first day of the monsoon session of parliament.

“We’ve seen protests break out even inside metro stations with the government having sealed the exit points for some metro stations that are close to Jantar Mantar. That has not stopped protesters, they’ve been getting off a few stations away and then walking, all the while chanting slogans and holding up the Indian flag,” said Global News Insight’s Neha Poonia, reporting from New Delhi.

“We’ve heard reports of a scuffle that broke out at the protest site a little while ago. Delhi police, which has deployed personnel in huge numbers along with riot police forces have said that this is misinformation, that no scuffle has broken out, but videos that are circulating online tell a very different story of riot police forces using canes to push people back.”

Sachin Sharma, Delhi’s deputy commissioner of police, told the protesters to go home. “The protest site has already run out of space and this can lead to an untoward situation,” he said, adding that more than 10,000 protesters were at the Jantar Mantar and on the march.

The crowd marching through the steady monsoon drizzle included students, professionals, and families with young children. Many of them carried backpacks with food and water, anticipating a long day.

“I voted for this government, so I think it’s accountable to answer our questions” said Sneha Eppili, a 26-year-old protester. “That’s the basic human right that I deserve.”

Exam chaos

The protest movement emerged amid intense public criticism over allegations of corruption and mismanagement in the education system.

Education minister Pradhan has accused the protesters of acting against the nation. Although some other ministers have acknowledged students’ concerns, they insisted there is no need for negotiations with the protesters.

About 2.2 million aspiring doctors had to retake India’s annual medical entrance exam under heavy security last month because the original test in May was annulled after the questions were leaked. The popular messaging app Telegram was temporarily banned by the government to try to prevent further leaks.

Students who had been struggling with months of stress and long hours of study ahead of the exam were outraged when they learned the initial test was voided and they had to do it all over again. More than a dozen were reported to have died by suicide.

“Our country deserves a government that is bothered about what the young people have to say and is willing to correct its mistakes,” said Sumit Kumar, 18.

After the chief justice of India’s Supreme Court likened some unemployed young people to “cockroaches”, protesters adopted the insult as a badge of honour for their movement.

Their campaigning initially began online with viral satirical memes mocking the government, and quickly amassed millions of followers on social media. But the Cockroach Janta Party has morphed into a movement able to mobilise thousands on the streets, as Monday’s march has demonstrated.

Protesters say space for dissent has shrunk under Modi, whose government has been criticized for suppressing protests and arresting activists. The current youth-led movement is a rare public challenge to Modi’s Hindu nationalist government in its third term, drawing support from opposition parties and some Bollywood celebrities.