Representatives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to compensate families affected by a major exam leak, as protesters keep pressing for India’s education minister to resign. Thousands of young people have been protesting, demanding education reforms after a series of irregularities in high-stakes exams, including leaked papers. (EPA Images pic)NEW DELHI: When Indian prime minister Narendra Modi's government cut mobile internet services at the site of youth-led protests in New Delhi, students found new ways to stay in touch.Thousands of young people have been protesting, some camping under tarpaulin in the capital, demanding changes to the education system after a series of irregularities to life-changing exams, including leaks of some papers.India's ministry of home affairs issued an order suspending mobile internet services for eight hours on Thursday within 1.5km (nearly one mile) of the protest site.The action was needed "in the interest of public order and for preventing incitement to the commission of any offence", said the document, published on the ministry's website.Some students simply switched to Bitchat – a peer-to-peer messaging system that relies on Bluetooth to link people who are nearby into an ad-hoc network without using the internet."Many people are using Bitchat," Kumar Shalabh, 21, said of the open-source app developed by American tech entrepreneur Jack Dorsey.Shalabh is among the many protesters demanding change and the resignation of the education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan.He used artificial intelligence services Claude and ChatGPT to seek out new ways to communicate."They think we are just part of the internet.
Yeah, we know the internet – we also know how to communicate without the internet," he said."They think we are dumb, we are foolish, but actually we are quite smart."Bitchat founder The demonstrations led by the social media-driven Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) this week have become one of the biggest challenges to Hindu-nationalist Modi's administration since his 2024 re-election for a third term.The protest has evolved to include concerns over unemployment, opportunities for young people and what critics have called Modi's increasingly authoritarian style of governance.As tensions escalated, notably when police fired tear gas and used batons against tens of thousands of demonstrators on Monday, protesters said their mobile internet communications slowed or stopped.Some of the students, most of them Gen Z, said they were ready.Khushi, who only gave her first name, said she and her friends decided…
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