The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a youth-led political movement, continued its sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar for the third consecutive day on Monday, demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET paper leak.
The protest, the second at Jantar Mantar this month, began on Saturday, originally scheduled from 10 am to 5 pm, but continued as the demonstrators pressed for Pradhan’s resignation.
Abhijeet Dipke, the CJP founder, said Pradhan’s resignation was the “bare minimum” and criticised the authorities for not allowing students who were late to reach the examination centre for the NEET re-test on Sunday.
“We are protesting for accountability. You cannot tolerate four minutes of delay (reaching the examination centre), but how can we tolerate the continuation of the education minister after the deaths of students?” Dipke said.
Several NEET aspirants who had appeared for the re-test joined the protest on Monday. “Although I sat for the re-examination, I am not mentally in a good state due to the process being extremely confusing,” said a student from Bihar. At the protest on Monday.
Student unions, including the Students Federation of India (SFI), the All India Students Association (AISA), and the All India Students Federation (AISF), were present at the protest. Dipke, accompanied by climate activist Sonam Wangchuk and education activist Nandita Narain, had stated on Sunday that he would stay at the site until Pradhan resigns.
On Monday, the CPJ had asked people to bring candles to the site to hold a candlelight vigil in memory of a student who died by suicide due to the NEET paper leak.
