'Centre Sought A Day's Time': CJP Firm On Dharmendra Pradhan's Resignation

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan must resign or be sacked, the Cockroach Janta Party, or CJP, said today after Round 2 of talks with the Centre, adding that the student protests will continue.

The Centre has sought time till Saturday afternoon over the resignation demand, the CJP said after the meeting at the Constitution Club Of India Friday afternoon.

While the government was represented by Union Health Minister JP Nadda and Minister of State for PMO Jitendra Singh, the CJP was represented by its national spokesperson Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka.

"The government has asked for time till tomorrow afternoon on our demand for Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation. We hope the government will remove him soon. The government has expressed in-principle approval on the two demands of compensation (for families of NEET aspirants who died by suicide) and withdrawal of FIRs, legal cases on students," CJP's Ashutosh Ranka said. 

The CJP agreed to the dialogue after the government reportedly accepted two of their conditional demands: that no legal action would be taken against peaceful protesters and that adequate compensation would be provided to the families of students affected by the recent exam irregularities.

"The meeting went on for almost 2 hours. They had 3 main demands and 5 reform suggestions for exams. We have told them that we will meet them again tomorrow afternoon and tell them about the discussion we had among the Government," JP Nadda said after the meeting.

The meeting took hours after activist Sonam Wangchuk ended his 26-day hunger strike late on Thursday night following government assurances on his key demands. The 59-year-old Wangchuk further revealed that while verbal assurances were offered earlier, he insisted on a formal document, leading to a two-day delay in ending his protest.

Ahead of the meeting CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke too underlined that nothing short of the resignation of the Education Minister over the NEET paper leak will do.

"If the government wants a solution to the protest, it is only the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan,"Dipke, the 30-year-old  leader, had said earlier today. 

The last round of talks between the two sides took place on July 20, when CJP national spokespersons Das and Ashutosh Ranka met JP Nadda at his residence.

The two leaders later alleged that they were kept under "virtual detention" during the meeting and said they had subsequently insisted that any future discussions with the government be held only at a neutral venue.

Late on Thursday night, in a self-recorded video shared on X, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the Union Cabinet will take up a draft Bill providing for fast-track courts and stringent punishment for offenders. He said, "I have issued directions to departments to set up Fast-Track Courts."

In another outreach to the student protesters, the Centre has shifted Higher Education Secretary Vineet Joshi to the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and appointed new officials to top positions in both the school education and higher education departments.

The Ministry of Education has been at the centre of a controversy due to the NEET paper leak and alleged irregularities in the CBSE's evaluation of board exams.