Indian diaspora rallies across five countries in support of CJP over Neet row

Members of the Indian diaspora staged protests across the UK, Ireland, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands in response to the Delhi Police action against demonstrators seeking the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The largest protest was held outside the Indian High Commission in London.

“We (SFI) did this in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester…. We were expecting around 200 people based on social media interactions and things. But yesterday at least 1,000 people gathered in London,” Nikhil Mathew, the SFI’s central executive committee member and an academic based in Glasgow, told The Telegraph. He helped organise the protests in the UK.

Mathew said the demonstrations went beyond concerns over Neet and CBSE, with participants raising wider political demands.

“People weren’t just limiting it to the question of NEET and CBSE. They were willing to take it to the logical conclusion…. People were calling for the resignation of Narendra Modi, for the resignation of Amit Shah, for how the Delhi police treated the protesters yesterday, and the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan, of course. There was a general deep sense of despair with democratic decline in India about the future of the country,” he said.

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Demonstrations held across Europe and Canada

According to Mathew, the Edinburgh protest was organised under the SFI banner, while the demonstrations in London, Glasgow and Manchester were held “in solidarity with the cockroaches in India” and “without any logo”.

Protests were also organised near the International Criminal Court in The Hague, as well as outside the Indian embassies in Berlin and Dublin. A demonstration was also held in Vancouver, Canada.

Mathew said he was in contact with students in Auckland, New Zealand, to organise a protest there as well.

Organisers cite solidarity with protesters in India

Explaining the reason behind the overseas demonstrations, Mathew said many members of the Indian diaspora felt powerless while following developments in India through social media.

“We called for protests because people were also feeling quite isolated.... Because everyone is consuming social media content about students and children back home being brutalised, and they were feeling very helpless. About 80 per cent of the protesters were students and the rest were working professionals,” he added.