An important meeting between the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and the central government was held in Delhi on Friday as the protests over the alleged NEET-UG examination irregularities continued. The meeting lasted nearly two hours and the protesters did not reach a final decision on whether to replace the Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan.
The government delegation included Union Health Minister JP Nadda and Minister of State for the Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh. Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were the CJP spokespersons.
The discussion centered on three major demands that the protest organisation raised while the demonstrators are still protesting against alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG system. The main demand that the protesters have is for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The government asked to wait until Saturday afternoon for the full discussion of the demand and to announce its decision, CJP spokesperson Saurav Das said.
"The government has asked for time till tomorrow afternoon on our demand for Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation. We hope the government will remove him soon," Das said after the meeting in a press conference.
But the protesters said in principle the Centre had agreed on two other demands. These include compensation for the families of NEET aspirants who died by suicide and the withdrawal of FIRs and other legal cases filed against students involved in the protests.
Das said the CJP would continue its agitation until concrete action was taken on all its demands.
Union Minister JP Nadda said the meeting lasted almost two hours. He said the protesters had raised three major demands along with five suggestions related to examination reforms.
"They had three main demands and five reform suggestions for exams. We have told them that we will meet them again tomorrow afternoon and tell them about the discussion we had among the government," Nadda said.
The meeting was the third official interaction between the CJP and the government. Nadda, Das and Ranka had earlier held two consecutive meetings on July 20 at the minister's residence.
The discussions were conducted in the wake of continuing protests at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar over the alleged NEET-UG paper leak and wider calls for the examination system in India to change. The protesters have also demanded accountability from the government and action against those allegedly responsible for examination irregularities.
The meeting took place shortly after activist Sonam Wangchuk ended his 26-day hunger strike late Thursday night after the government gave him some assurance on his demands. The CJP welcomed the development but said that its own protest would continue.
The issue of the Education Minister's resignation remains unresolved for now. The government will tell us after a few days and the CJP has said that the protest at Jantar Mantar will continue until it gets a concrete response.
