PTI
New Delhi
The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on Saturday called off its 36-day agitation after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned and the government accepted its other demands, a momentous win for the unprecedented youth-led movement that galvanised lakhs of people over irregularities in exams and the NEET paper leak.
Pradhan announced his resignation in a statement, saying the developments of the past 10 days had “saddened” him deeply and that the issue was “not a matter of personal prestige”.
Noting that he did not want “anti-national forces” to exploit the situation, Pradhan said he wanted to ensure that “the unity of the nation remains intact”, “the future of even a single student should not become entangled in legal complications” and that the students devote their time to studies and building their careers. “Keeping all these considerations in mind, I have sent my resignation to the Hon’ble Prime Minister,” he said.
Union minister Prahlad Joshi has been appointed as the new Education Minister. Joshi has been given additional charge of the Education Ministry besides his role as Consumer Affairs Minister. A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said the President, as advised by PM, has accepted the resignation of Pradhan with immediate effect.
Soon after Pradhan’s announcement, the CJP declared that it was withdrawing its agitation after the government agreed to all its remaining demands, including compensation for the families of students, who allegedly died by suicide following the NEET paper leak and withdrawal of FIRs against protesters.
The announcement came after the third round of talks between the two sides at the Constitution Club of India here, where Union ministers J P Nadda and Jitendra Singh met CJP representatives Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka.
Addressing a joint press conference with the CJP leadership, Nadda said the government would provide “honourable compensation” within the rules to the families of students who committed suicide after the NEET examination controversy and ensure the withdrawal of all FIRs registered against protesters.
“As the government accepted all our demands, we call off our protests with immediate effect. We appeal everyone to go back home peacefully,” Das said.
Jubilant scenes erupted at Jantar Mantar and chants of ‘Hum Jeet Gaye’ (We have won) rang out across the protest site after Pradhan resigned. The protesters danced, waved the tricolour and embraced each other, while songs such as ‘Chak De India’ played in the background.
Addressing the jubilant gathering, Dipke said, “Pradhan’s resignation is proof that if you don’t get scared, you can win.” “They used to say that this government does not see resignations. We say the world bends if there is someone who can make it bend,” he said. Dipke also thanked Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, whose “cockroaches” remark about unemployed youth had triggered the movement.
Meanwhile, a special commissioner of police was among three police officers injured after a section of protesters allegedly pelted stones at security personnel at Jantar Mantar shortly after the announcement of Pradhan’s resignation, police sources said.
The incident prompted security forces to lob tear gas and resort to a mild lathi-charge to bring the situation under control, sources said.
The violence erupted when a section of the gathering allegedly turned aggressive as senior police officers were overseeing crowd management at the protest site, the sources said. According to the police source, the special commissioner of police, Anil Shukla of the Special Cell, along with other senior and field officers, was at the forefront of efforts to regulate the crowd and prevent any breach of security arrangements.
As officers moved closer to the protesters to maintain order, some demonstrators raised slogans, while another group allegedly began pelting stones without any provocation, said the source.
The special commissioner sustained injury during the stone-pelting and was immediately evacuated by police teams to a nearby hospital for treatment. Two other police officers also suffered injuries in the incident and were shifted to the hospital. Their condition is said to be stable, he added.
The stone-pelting triggered brief chaos at the protest site, following which security personnel fired tear gas and carried out a mild lathi-charge to disperse the violent section of the crowd and prevent further escalation. Police personnel quickly secured the area and pushed the protesters back, restoring order within a short span of time, the source said.
As the celebrations continued, authorities began overseeing the winding down of the demonstration, urging protesters to disperse peacefully, while the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) reopened all entry and exit gates at nearby stations to facilitate their movement.
Pradhan’s resignation marked a significant climbdown for the Narendra Modi government, which had initially dismissed the agitation before gradually opening channels of dialogue with the protesters.
Pradhan is only the second Union minister during Modi’s tenure as PM since 2014 to resign following sustained public controversy. The first was M J Akbar, who stepped down as minister of state for external affairs in 2018 after sexual harassment allegations surfaced against him during the #MeToo movement.
Pradhan’s resignation is among the few occasions since 2014 that the Modi government has yielded to sustained public or political pressure – the decision in 2015 to shelve the proposed amendments to the land acquisition law and the repeal of the three farm laws in 2021 being two major retreats.
The protests were spearheaded by the CJP, a platform launched by former AAP functionary Abhijeet Dipke as a satirical online campaign in May before it evolved into a nationwide youth movement centred on demands for accountability over the NEET paper leak.
The agitation began at Jantar Mantar on June 20 but acquired national momentum after activist Sonam Wangchuk joined it on June 28 and undertook an indefinite fast with six AISA activists. Wangchuk ended his fast on Thursday night after the Centre’s outreach to him.
The government’s first formal engagement with the CJP leadership came on July 20 at Nadda’s residence, even as police cracked down on protesters marching towards Parliament, an action that became a turning point in the agitation and swelled support for the movement.
A second round of discussions was held on Friday after the Centre accepted the CJP’s demand that the venue be shifted from a minister’s residence to a neutral venue.
Wangchuk’s forcible removal from Jantar Mantar to Safdarjung Hospital by police on July 18 had also triggered widespread outrage and broadened support for the agitation.
Reacting to Pradhan’s resignation, Wangchuk described it as “a victory of democracy, direct democracy… Straight from the streets”.
