Hyderabad: With ongoing protests at Jantar Mantar demanding resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, several student leaders from the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) in Hyderabad reached Delhi to join the protests on Monday.Speaking to TOI, Ruchith Asha Kamal, a CJP leader from Hyderabad, said, “From Hyderabad, 20 of us had gone to Delhi and marched to the Sansad. There was a lathi-charge, but none of us were injured.”Those who could not reach Delhi expressed their solidarity through protests here in Telangana. The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) Telangana on Monday launched an indefinite hunger strike near Sundarayya Vignana Kendram in Hyderabad demanding the abolition of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan.The protest was inaugurated by CPM state secretary John Wesley and former MLA Julakanti Ranga Reddy. Addressing the gathering, Wesley alleged, “Repeated controversies surrounding national entrance examinations such as NEET and CUET had eroded students’ trust in the NTA. We demand that Pradhan resign, taking responsibility for the situation.”“The agency should be abolished and sought a transparent entrance examination system that respects the rights of states,” said Ranga Reddy.SFI leaders also condemned the alleged police action against students protesting at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, including the use of lathis and water cannons, describing it as an attack on democratic rights.The organisation further alleged that police detained several SFI leaders, including state president S Rajinikanth and state secretary T Nagaraju, while they were participating in the hunger strike in Hyderabad. It demanded the immediate withdrawal of cases against the leaders, their unconditional release, and an end to what it termed the suppression of student movements.
