Dipke arrived in Nagpur on Tuesday morning ahead of a CJP-led protest at Samvidhan Square, where the outfit plans to demand the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over last month’s alleged NEET (UG) paper leak.
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The activist was allegedly slapped multiple times by two men while being carried on the shoulders of supporters during a protest in Jaipur on Monday. Two youths have since been detained in connection with the incident.
Asked who he believed was behind the assault, Dipke said, “There were some people belonging to RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), and there is nothing new in it.”
“Whenever someone speaks against the government or their ideology, they do like this; there is nothing new in it,” he claimed.
Responding to allegations about his own past association with the RSS and claims that he had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Dipke said, “Is that why they attacked me yesterday?”He maintained that the attack was intended to shift the public discourse away from the concerns of students affected by the examination controversy.
“We will not deviate from our issues; you attack us as much as you want. We will do our protest peacefully and democratically and not deviate from our main issue, which is about more than one crore students suffering injustice, and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has to take responsibility for it,” he said.
Dipke asserted that such incidents would not deter the movement.
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“These kind of attacks will keep happening, but I am not afraid. We walk on the path of (Mahatma) Gandhi ji and Ambedkar, and it is our satyagraha, we will keep going on peacefully,” he said.
Calling for public participation, Dipke appealed to Nagpur residents, particularly students and young people, to gather at Samvidhan Square at 4 p.m. for what he described as a peaceful demonstration.
The CJP has been demanding Pradhan’s resignation over the NEET (UG) paper leak scandal, arguing that accountability must be fixed for the alleged irregularities that affected lakhs of aspirants across the country.
Authorities have made elaborate security arrangements in Nagpur ahead of the protest. Police expect more than 2,000 youths to participate in the demonstration and have intensified deployment across key locations in the city to maintain law and order.
