Pune, Jun 10: Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijit Dipke on Wednesday reiterated his demand for Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, alleging that repeated irregularities in examinations had affected the future of millions of students across the country.
Addressing a press conference here, Dipke said the country’s youth were no longer willing to remain silent over issues affecting students and warned of a nationwide protest if the education minister does not resign.
“One thing has now been proved. The youth of this country will not be scared anymore and will not back down. So far, multiple students have allegedly died by suicide in connection with issues surrounding the NEET examination,” he said.
Claiming that more than one crore students had suffered due to problems linked to examinations such as NEET, CBSE and CUET, Dipke said no one was ready to take responsibility for the situation.
“We had organised a protest at Jantar Mantar (in Delhi) on June 6 and demanded that Dharmendra Pradhan immediately resign. Someone has to take responsibility. Students who could have gone on to become doctors and save lives have lost their own lives because of the failure of the system,” he said.
Dipke said his organisation had asked the minister to resign by Saturday, failing which a nationwide agitation would be launched.
“If the resignation does not come, we will start a nationwide movement. It will begin from Pune. We will hold a peaceful protest in Pune at 4 pm on Thursday (June 11). Thereafter, protests will also be organised in Lucknow, Amritsar, Jaipur and Bengaluru,” he said.
Appealing to the government to accept “moral responsibility”, Dipke alleged the future of lakhs of candidates was being jeopardised.
“Paper leaks are taking place, servers are going down, and students are suffering. Who will take responsibility for this, and how long will this continue?” he asked.
About his plan for a bigger agitation, he said youth from across the country will gather in Delhi on June 20 if Pradhan doesn’t step down.
“I myself will participate in the protest and appeal to people to come to the national capital. If Dharmendra Pradhan does not resign, students and youth from across the country will come to Delhi and will not return until his resignation is secured,” Dipke said.
Earlier, the CJP had staged a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on June 6, demanding Pradhan’s resignation over alleged paper leak cases in the country. Dipke said that if Prime Minister Narendra Modi can stop the Russia-Ukraine war, he can definitely secure the resignation of the education minister. (PTI)
