India: Excessive Force Used Against Student Protesters

Click to expand Image Police officers use batons to disperse protestors during a march by the Cockroach Janta Party in New Delhi, India, July 20, 2026. © Photo by Kabir Jhangiani/NurPhoto via AP (New York) – Indian security forces used tear gas and batons to suppress largely peaceful student and youth protests in New Delhi on July 20, 2026, Human Rights Watch said today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration should promptly and impartially investigate unnecessary and excessive use of force, allow peaceful protests, and stop suspending mobile internet services, which put people at added risk. Protests that began in June to demand accountability for mismanagement of medical entrance examinations grew to include grievances against unemployment and government corruption. The “Cockroach Janta Party,” a Gen Z-led movement that began after the Supreme Court chief justice compared unemployed youth to cockroaches, called for a peaceful march to parliament on July 20. Scores of people, including some police officers, were injured, with one young woman protester in critical condition. “India’s youth wanted to march peacefully to parliament to seek accountability from their elected leaders,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Instead, the police met them with batons, tear gas, and internet shutdowns.” Human Rights Watch interviewed 9 witnesses, including protest organizers, journalists, and student protesters; and analyzed and verified 10 videos posted on social media. On July 21, political opposition leaders criticized the police crackdown, calling the government “insensitive” and “authoritarian.” Delhi police temporarily detained several top opposition leaders after a nearly three-hour protest in front of Modi’s residence. The Supreme Court refused to hear a plea on alleged police abuses against student protesters, saying, “don’t waste our time.” Since June, demonstrators had occupied Jantar Mantar, an 18th century observatory that is a prominent protest site a couple of kilometers from parliament. The protests gained momentum on July 18 after Delhi police forcibly removed the activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had been on a hunger strike since June 28, from Jantar Mantar and admitted him to a public hospital. The Delhi police claimed that protesters displayed “unruly, aggressive and violent behavior,” attacked them with stones and other objects, vandalized their vehicles, and resorted to “large-scale violence,” injuring their personnel. Human Rights Watch verified one video showing protesters beating and piling onto a police officer, who falls to the ground. The Cockroach Janta Party and protesters rejected the police account of large-scale violence, saying the police used force without any provocation. “The protesters were just sitting there, begging the police not to beat them, asking them, ‘Why are you beating us?’” said a 34-year-old Delhi-based lawyer. “This entire crowd was far more engaging with the police than retaliating. No hitting back or stopping the batons, they were just taking the hits.” “I did not expect the police to be so brutal,” said a 24-year-old photojournalist who was covering the protest. “I have photos of protesters just standing there and the police beating them. I saw male police officers bashing up women. The women were entreating with folded hands and still police officers were beating them up.” A number of protesters said that security forces pushed them into very tight spaces, or charged at crowds, risking a stampede. “It was suffocating, there was hardly any space to breathe,” said a 24-year-old law student describing a skirmish that took place when police charged at protesters who had tried to breach police barricades. “Somehow, I managed to keep standing, but two of the girls with me fell and people stepped on them.” Human Rights Watch verified six videos showing security officers using batons or tear gas against protesters, or pelting them with stones. In one video, a possible tear gas canister lands and bursts among a group of protesters sitting on the ground. The force of the blast knocks one protester off his feet as he tries to run away. Human Rights Watch verified a video that shows three men in civilian clothes holding plastic batons like those used by security officers. At least one is seen beating protesters alongside police officers. Several witnesses said police were also present in civilian clothes and many police and Rapid Action Force riot-control police did not wear name tags which thwarts accountability for their actions. According to digital rights groups, protesters were also subjected to surveillance using facial recognition systems. Telecommunication service providers reportedly received orders to shut down mobile internet services in parts of central Delhi on July 20. However, the government did not abide by Supreme Court directions to make suspension orders public. A protester said he lost his friends in the stampede-like situation and then the police hit him with a stick on his elbow. But he could not locate his friends, he said, “because they had shut down mobile internet and jammed mobile services, so no calls were going through.” Indian authorities have a history of shutting down the internet during protests to restrict access to information, conceal abuses by security forces, and prevent independent documentation of these abuses, Human Rights Watch said. Access to the internet is widely recognized as an indispensable enabler of a broad range of human rights guaranteed in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other human rights instruments to which India is a party. The United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution in 2016 unequivocally condemning internet shutdowns and called upon all states to “refrain from and cease such measures.” The right to peaceful assembly and protest is a fundamental right protected under international human rights law. The UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials provide that officers may only use force when strictly necessary. When using force, law enforcement officials should exercise restraint and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offense and to the legitimate objective to be achieved. The 2020 UN guidance on less-lethal weapons in law enforcement provides that tear gas should only be employed when necessary to prevent further physical harm and should not be used to disperse nonviolent demonstrations. “India’s police have a long history of committing serious human rights violations with impunity,” Ganguly said. “The authorities need to promptly and impartially investigate security force abuses against the protesters in Delhi, and appropriately prosecute those responsible, regardless of rank.”