The Center on Tuesday reached out to the Opposition, especially the Congress, to quash the furor demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, assuring that the issue of paper leaks would be discussed in the current monsoon session. The government also said it was open to holding talks with students and representatives of the Janata Party, protesting against irregularities in competitive exams, but did not provide assurances that the demands would be met nor set a time frame for the next rounds of meetings, people familiar with the details said.
These developments came on a day when Congress leaders, led by legislator Rahul Gandhi, protested outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official residence at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg, demanding Pradhan’s resignation.
“Our doors are open for talks,” a senior government official said. “We have already informed them (GPC representatives) that their demands will be discussed in the appropriate forum… At the moment we have not decided when the next meeting will be held and we are not giving any guarantees (that the demands will be met).”
The government quickly sent Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Jitendra Singh, to speak to the Congress leaders, who refused to stop their agitation.
BJP president Nitin Nabin criticized the Congress for protesting outside the Prime Minister’s residence, calling it an “attempt to incite chaos.”
“The behavior shown by LoP Rahul Gandhi today is completely inappropriate and condemnable. His behavior clearly shows that he does not take the dignity of the office of Leader of Opposition seriously… We have consistently maintained that Rahul Gandhi stands out as a symbol of chaos. Some parliamentary positions do not belong to any single party; the Prime Minister is not just the leader of one party but the elected representative of 1.4 billion citizens,” he said.
He added: “Today’s incident is undoubtedly unfortunate. It is a dark day in India’s political history. We too served in the opposition for long periods, but we never violated these boundaries… When Rahul Gandhi set the conditions, they were accepted. However, it is unfortunate that a person holding the position of the LJB backed down once the process went ahead.”
Sure enough, the BJP demonstrated outside Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s house in 2013.
Union Minister JP Nadda on Monday met CPM representatives, who submitted a written memorandum demanding Pradhan’s resignation, among other things. “This morning, for the first time, a proposal came from the protesters to hold talks with the government, and our discussions have been going on since 11:50 am. The meeting took place in a cordial atmosphere. A preliminary verbal discussion was held in detail with their delegation, and they submitted a written petition to me around 4 pm. I requested all the protesters to end their sit-in and help the administration restore normalcy,” Neda wrote on X.
The BJP leader said the opposition was trying to create unrest. “It was clear from yesterday’s meeting (JP Nadda met APC representatives) that the government is listening. The students demanded the resignation of the minister who has already taken steps to ensure that the examinations are conducted fairly. It is clear that the students are being misled…and when the opposition realized that the students’ concerns were being addressed, they chose to disrupt,” the leader said.
The BJP leader pointed to Modi’s instructions to National Democratic Alliance (NDA) lawmakers to reach out to students as an indication that the government is seeking to address their concerns.
