India has one of the hardest exam systems in the world.
Last year, 20,000,000 students sat the NEET-UG medical exams, fighting over 60,000 undergraduate public university places. Failing to get a good score on your NEET exam can leave you unable to study medicine in India, a potentially life ruining situation.
Earlier this year, after the exams had been taken, it was revealed that some of the questions had been leaked before the exam day, the exams were recalled and students were told they would have to resit. The fallout of that decision would lead to a number of students tragically taking their lives, unable to face the thought of going through the exam process again.
Systemic corruption in the Indian education system was to blame, and the ensuing protests would induce an unprecedented government U-turn, a repressive state crackdown, and the need for the judiciary to step in to protect student voices.
The controversy surrounding the exams started in May of 2026. It was revealed by a number of investigations that some WhatsApp and Telegram channels linked to private tutoring groups had included real exam questions in their preparation material weeks ahead of the exam release date. This resulted in an unusual increase in students with perfect or near perfect marks.
Students who had access to these private tutoring groups gained an unfair advantage over their peers, which resulted in them having better access to potentially life changing opportunities. However, the National Testing Agency’s decision to recall exams and make students resit led to a tragic spike in student suicides.
What followed was a wave of student protests, the results of which are completely without precedent in modern Indian politics. The social media savvy Cockroach Janta Party was able to effectively threaten the Executive enough to force the education minister to resign and take responsibility for the moral and organisational failings in the examination process.
This is the first time a senior member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet has resigned due to public pressure. However, the government would try and make sure that was the last concession it was forced to make to the protesters. As student groups attempted to organise the ‘Chalo Sansad’ march towards Parliament, they were met with swift and harsh government repression.
Heavy-duty riot barricades were installed, tear gas was fired and lathi charges — a colonial-era tactic used to break protests using large bamboo staffs — were used extensively against the protesters. Additionally, police filed hundreds of criminal cases against peaceful student protesters, potentially leaving their lives permanently marked with criminal records that would severely impact their future opportunities.
This was a deliberate government scheme to scare students into silence. Eventually, India’s Supreme court stepped in to protect students’ right to protest, and rejected the police’s heavy-handed suppression tactics both physically and legally. The court ruled that peaceful protests, such as what the students were engaging in, did not merit such violent police reactions. The court went on to demand that police dismiss charges against young, non-violent student protesters, protecting their potential medical careers from being permanently ruined by a criminal record.
These student protests show us that despite concerns about the health of the world’s largest democracy, civil society is still able to make the government act when enough pressure is exerted.
The protests managed to force the government into doing a wholesale overhaul of their examination security measures, had the education minister stand down and apologise, and proved the judicial system is still strong enough to decisively stand up to the Executive.