The Mumbai Police on Wednesday detained protesters across the city, including stand-up comedians Abish Mathew and Raunaq Rajani, actor Ayesha Khan and several students, as demonstrations against alleged examination irregularities spread across India.

The protests in Mumbai, held in solidarity with the Cockroach Janta Party’s agitation in Delhi, drew crowds to Chembur, Dadar and South Mumbai despite heavy police deployment and prohibitory orders, The Times of India reported.

The police also stopped senior Congress leaders, including the party’s state unit president Harshvardhan Sapkal, and legislature party leader and former minister Naseem Khan, as they were heading towards the Bharatiya Janata Party’s office, the newspaper reported.

The demonstrations came two days after the Delhi Police used lathis and tear gas to disperse protesters during the march to Parliament called by the Cockroach Janta Party.

Protesters have since continued their sit-in at Jantar Mantar, while Opposition parties have demanded a discussion in Parliament on the police crackdown and the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Here’s more on this and other top updates:

Protests across India

  • The police dragged away and detained several protesters during demonstrations in Mumbai, The Indian Express reported.
  • More than 30 students, detained at the Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Police Station in Chembur, were initially denied access to lawyers, alleged Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Anish Gawande. He later said that the students had been released. Gawande also called for the release of those detained in Dadar.
  • NDTV journalist Sohit Mishra alleged that he had also been detained while reporting on the protests.

Also read: How Mumbai police is using surveillance to stop youth from protesting

  • Protests spread to several others cities on Wednesday. In Patna’s JP Golambar area, police used water cannon, tear gas and lathi-charge to disperse students marching towards Raj Bhavan under the banner of the All India Students Association, The Indian Express reported.
  • Congress workers were detained in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi, the party’s MLAs wore black bands in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly demanding a discussion on the issue, while demonstrators supporting the Opposition party clashed with police outside Lok Bhavan in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur, Dainik Jagran reported.
  • Protests were also reported from Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Jalandhar, the newspaper reported.

Opposition protests in Parliament

  • Both Houses of Parliament were repeatedly adjourned on Wednesday. This came amid protests by the Opposition demanding discussions on several matters, including the police lathi-charge on Monday. Several MPs wore black clothes as part of their protest.
  • The MPs from the Congress, Samajwadi Party, the Left parties and other Opposition parties staged demonstrations inside and outside Parliament, seeking the education minister’s resignation.
  • Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said that the government was ready to discuss the paper leak matter “as per rules” of the Houses.
  • “When the discussion is to be held, the duration of the discussion and under what rule the discussion is to be held should be decided after speaking with floor leaders of all parties,” he told the Lok Sabha. “There should be a construction discussion for the future of the youth of this country – this is what the government wants.”
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said the Opposition must be “on the streets” if students were protesting and demanded an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the police action against demonstrators. Read more about this here.

Other developments

  • The Supreme Court refused to urgently hear a petition alleging that the police used excessive force against the protesters on Monday. “Don’t waste our time and don’t waste your time,” said Chief Justice Surya Kant. When the petitioner said that he can submit video evidence of police excesses, the bench said that it was “not interested” and did not “have time to watch”. Read more about this here.
  • However, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought responses from the Union government and Delhi Police on petitions alleging excessive force during Monday's protest, Live Law reported. It also directed the authorities to preserve surveillance camera footage and other electronic records relating to the incident.
  • Meanwhile, Union Health Minister JP Nadda told The Indian Express that the government is “always open” to take the talks forward with the protesters.
  • The campaign’s spokesperson Saurav Das said they would not go to a minister’s office again but were willing to meet at a “neutral venue” near Jantar Mantar if the government had “concerns about security at the protest site”, PTI reported. He also said there was “no point” in holding “meaningless discussions”.
  • The Cockroach Janta Party’s Instagram account was briefly blocked on Wednesday, its founder Abhijeet Dipke claimed. He posted a screenshot on X which showed a message stating that the platform had “complied with a legal request to restrict this content”. Minutes later, Dipke said that the account had been restored. It was not immediately clear whether the account had been withheld.

Opposition MPs stopped from meeting Wangchuk

  • A group of Opposition MPs were stopped from meeting activist Sonam Wangchuk at Medanta Hospital in Haryana’s Gurugram, ANI reported. The activist has been on an indefinite hunger strike since June 28 as part of the political campaign’s protest.
  • The MPs, who had reached the hospital with a letter signed by 55 parliamentarians urging him to end his fast, later handed it over to his wife, Gitanjali Angmo.
  • The Haryana Police claimed only family members were being allowed to meet him as per hospital protocol, The Hindu reported. However on Tuesday night, Nadda and Union minister Jitendra Singh had met Wangchuk at the hospital, after he was shifted there from Safdarjung Hospital following directions from the Delhi High Court.
  • The Cockroach Janta Party on Wednesday appealed to Wangchuk to end his indefinite fast, saying his sacrifice had “inspired thousands of students across the country”. The campaign said it would continue the agitation until its demands for examination reforms and justice were met.
  • Wangchuk said on Wednesday that he would end his protest if the Union government gives an “unequivocal assurance” that young protesters who took part in the agitation would not face any punitive or retaliatory legal action. He also sought an assurance against further use of excessive police force. He made the same demand in a video posted on social media.

Delhi metro reopens

  • All 16 Delhi Metro stations that had been closed for “security reasons” on Wednesday were reopened for passengers by 6.34 pm, the metro authorities said.
  • The affected stations were Lok Kalyan Marg, which is near the prime minister’s residence, Rajiv Chowk located at Connaught Place, and Patel Chowk and Janpath near the Jantar Mantar protest site. Central Secretariat, Seva Teerth, Mandi House, ITO, Ramakrishna Ashram Marg, Barakhambha Road, Supreme Court, Delhi Gate, Indraprastha, Khan Market, Jor Bagh and Shivaji Stadium were the other stations.

Aftermath of Monday protest

  • The doctors at Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital said a 21-year-old woman who was critically injured during the police action on Monday has been taken off ventilator support, ANI reported.
  • The Delhi Police said it has registered 10 first information reports in connection with Monday’s Parliament march, The Hindu reported. Four cases were registered at Parliament Street police station, three at Connaught Place, and one each at Mandir Marg, Barakhamba Road and Kartavya Path police stations. The cases relate to various incidents during the protest and alleged law-and-order violations, the police said.

Students deserve certainty over chaos, says Pradhan

  • In a social media post on Tuesday night, Pradhan said that the Union government “remains 100% committed” to discussing the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for medical admissions and “addressing every genuine concern of our youth” in Parliament.
  • Criticising the Congress, the education minister said that the students of India “deserve far better than being treated as props in a political campaign”. “They deserve certainty over chaos, solutions over slogans and responsibility over disruption,” he added. “We owe our students more than outrage. We owe them answers, reforms and accountability.”
  • His statements came after Rahul Gandhi, along with Congress MP and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav were detained by the Delhi Police as they protested outside the prime minister’s residence. They were released hours later.

Written by Sneha and Sara Varghese. Edited by Nachiket Deuskar, Neerad Pandharipande and Tanya Shrivastava.

Also read: ‘People’s sympathy is now with the youth’: BJP workers worry about crackdown on protests