New Delhi: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) spokespersons Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das met union ministers JP Nadda and Jitendra Singh on Friday, as part of the second such high-level meeting with the Centre amid ongoing student protests in Delhi.
After the meeting, Ranka told the media that the government has “in-principle” agreed to two demands and has sought time till tomorrow to respond to union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation demand.
This was the second meeting between the government and the CJP, which has been spearheading a big protest seeking education reforms and resignation of Pradhan over the NEET-UG paper leak case.
“Dharmendra Pradhan needs to resign or he needs to be sacked. We spoke to the government in detail about this. The government has sought time till tomorrow afternoon to respond to this demand,” Ranka told reporters, warning that delay in Pradhan’s removal would only make the protest bigger.
Meanwhile, JP Nadda said that the meeting with the CJP lasted two hours, during which three demands and five reform suggestions for exams were discussed. “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, as quoted by news agency ANI.
CJP’s Ashutosh Ranka also said that during the meeting the government approved “in-principle” two demands by the CJP – compensation for families of NEET aspirants who died by suicide, and no legal action against student protesters.
Ranka said the CJP hopes the government would sack Pradhan soon. He also said that another meeting with the Centre is planned for Saturday, July 25.
However, government sources said the Modi government is unlikely to accept the demand for Pradhan’s sacking as it would send wrong signals, as he has done no wrong in conducting the NEET re-examination so effectively. “If such demands are considered, tomorrow they may ask the resignaton of other ministers and even the Prime Minister, as their hidden agenda was for regime change as they received foreign funding as well as involvement of some American students in the agitation,” a senior minister on condition of anonymity told some reporters.
