They came. They met. And then they sealed it with a handshake. And just like that the student protest movement, which lasted a little over a month, was called off on Saturday after the government interlocutors agreed to the Cockroach Janta Party's two more demands in addition to Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation.
Minister Pradhan, the leader from Odisha, announced his resignation before the much-anticipated third round of talks this afternoon.
"I am pained to see the events of the past 10 days. This is not a matter of personal prestige for me," he said in his resignation letter in Hindi.
"India's youth power is the real strength of this nation. My resolve is that we will not let the country's youth get trapped in a vicious cycle of confusion."
Protesters, who had been pressing for the Minister's resignation over NEET paper leak, erupted in joy after Pradhan's announcement.
Shortly after Pradhan's resignation, the Abhijeet Dipke-led CJP updated its roster of demands which included Rs 1 crore to the families of all students who died by suicide, no action against any of the studetn protesters and a public apology from the Rapid Action Force and police.
Addressing a press conference at the Constitution Club in the national capital, CJP's chief spokesperson Saurav Das said, "Cockroach Janta Party declares that we withdraw the agitation in good faith, with the understanding that the agreed-upon terms will be executed within the agreed-upon timelines."
The CJP said that the Central government has agreed to provide suitable compensation to the families of the NEET aspirants who died by suicide and assured to withdraw the FIRs lodged against protesters anywhere in India.
The CJP has also presented a five-point demand charter before the government and will hold the next round of talks after four weeks. Union Ministers JP Nadda and Jitendra Singh represented the government at the talks.
"We had demanded compensation of Rs 1 crore for the families of NEET victims. The government has agreed to this, stating that an honorary compensation will be given to those families under whatever rules and regulations allow. Apart from this, we also placed a five-point demand charter before the government, which talked about broader educational reforms and exam reforms. We will meet the government again in about four weeks regarding that demand charter so that we can work together on broader reforms. If all these demands are agreeable to the government, then we would also like to withdraw the agitation," spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka said.
"All our demands have been accepted, so we request the protesters to withdraw immediately and return home peacefully. We will inform you of our future strategy or any other issues. But we request the protesters to withdraw immediately," he added.
Several FIRs have been filed against protesters across India after the July 20 'Chalo Sansad' march at Jantar Mantar. The CJP had demanded a withdrawal of the FIRs and no legal action in the future.
Saurav Das said that the government has agreed to the demand.
"Our second demand was that all the FIRs filed against the protesters, not just in Delhi but in all BJP-ruled and BJP-allied states, should be withdrawn. This was also our second demand. The government has accepted that demand as well. Furthermore, the withdrawal will be done shortly. The government has assured us that it will share copies of all the FIRs filed - as per our last information, 15 to 20 FIRs were filed in Delhi - and we will receive those copies within three to four days in any case. The government has also assured that the withdrawal will be done shortly," Saurav Das said.
"Understanding this, we have shared a draft with the government, which is a written guarantee. The government has said it will share this with us by Tuesday. We hope that by Tuesday we will receive the government's guarantees regarding these FIRs and any future action," he added.
