Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijit Debki returned to India this morning and launched a major protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged lapses related to exams and recruitment tests.
The protest was organized under heavy security deployment, and dozens of young people joined it.
Read also | Abhijit Debaki, seen for the first time after his arrival in India, presents Ambedkar’s biography
“My friends, this is a long struggle. It has been a month since we started demanding Pradhan’s resignation on social media, but these individuals are so brazen that instead of taking necessary action, they focused on other distractions, like hacking our accounts and deleting our posts. You may be able to delete our posts, but you cannot erase us from this space,” Debaki said during his address to the crowd, according to news agency PTI.
What are the protesters demanding?
Apart from Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, the protesters demand the following:
Digitization in education does not take place except after appropriate training: “We are digitizing everything from banking to education, but are we able to stop malpractices? The answer is no. There is rampant banking fraud, and now we are seeing the impact of digitization in education. I am not against it, but I enter it only after proper evaluation and training of teachers,” 50-year-old Radheshyam Kaithal, a father of three students pursuing higher education in Delhi, told Hindustan Times.
Read also | Abhijit Debaki’s first words to his supporters on India’s arrival from the US | He watches
Normal functioning of education in Manipur: “There has been unrest in Manipur since the last three years. Nothing in my state is functioning normally, including schools and colleges. Students are in severe distress there,” said 32-year-old Winson, a social entrepreneur who left Manipur two years ago due to unrest and is now working in Noida.
Fairness and credibility in competitive examinations: “My cousin was preparing for NEET away from family and in a small room in Kota. He was hoping that even if he got admission in a low-level college, he would take it. But then the leak happened. He has been preparing for more than three years. We don’t know how to motivate him to appear in the newspaper again,” said 34-year-old Gayathri Singh, originally from Jaipur in Rajasthan and currently residing in Delhi.
Focus on issues affecting students and parents: “I followed the ceremony online, but I wasn’t sure whether I should come to protest or not,” said 18-year-old Ronak Kumar from Delhi. “I was on my way to the office at 10 am in Rohini, but suddenly I decided to come and check.” “I don’t know about the future of the party, but at least now they are talking about issues that concern everyone – whether you are a student or a parent worried about your children’s education,” Kumar said.
Accountability and concern for students’ mental health: “The CJP movement has managed to bring people from social media to the ground, which means they are talking about issues that people relate to somewhere,” Sugandha, a 38-year-old psychiatrist, told Hindustan Times. “Some students have ended their lives and thousands are under constant mental pressure. There is no accountability.”
Hundreds of people, mostly young participants, gathered for the demonstration, many wearing cockroach masks and carrying flowers. Many school students also attended the vigil alongside their parents.
The crowd was largely composed of school and university students, as well as young professionals, reflecting the broad participation of young people.
At the protest site, the CJP raised several slogans demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET papers leak issue, alleged irregularities related to CBSE’s screen marking system and other alleged examination-related lapses.
“Dharmendra Pradhan must resign” and “Dharmendra Pradhan, resign!” Among the slogans raised was “Jai Bhim”.
