‘Now Modi should go’: Jantar Mantar erupted in celebration after Pradhan’s resignation

Saturday was a carnival in Jantar Mantar.

A young woman hoisted on the shoulders of her partner blowing bubbles in the air. A few hundred metres away, a crowd of very energetic men dancing to the beats of a surprisingly loud toy drum. A bunch of boys taking joyrides on a barricade as a posse of Delhi Police personnel watch stone-faced while everyone else cheers and whoops. Another kid casually walking about with a speaker, playing on loop Modi’s accidentally vulgar mispronunciation of a Sanskrit sloka.

Few resignations in India’s history have sparked as much joy as was evident in and around Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Saturday after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan put in his papers. Since June 6, students led by the Cockroach Janta Party had demanded his resignation over question paper leaks.

Now nearly two months later, this movement – which started as a meme page – has shaken up the Modi government and seen the government fire a minister under public pressure. It was only the second time it had ever happened since 2014.

Against the odds

For strongman Modi, this defeat is bad news. The protestors at Jantar Mantar, meanwhile, are elated that they have pulled off a seemingly impossible victory.

“The past week has...

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