The Congress on Thursday announced a 40-day programme of outreach activities, public discussions, and protests to force education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign over the NEET leak.
While student groups have held continuous street protests since the NEET was cancelled in May, no government official has been punished. The satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) stole a march on the Opposition parties by starting an indefinite sit-in on Jantar Mantar Road here, near the Central Secretariat, last Saturday. The Left and AAP-backed student groups have joined the stir.
Lok Sabha Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi launched the Chhatron ki Goonj (Students' Resonance) series of rallies last week, calling for replacing the current "rejection system" of higher education and job exams.
Announcing the Chhatron ki Goonj campaign here, Assam Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi said that the campaign would culminate in a Delhi Chalo rally if the three demands aren't met. The demands include: Pradhan's resignation and a "fair and independent" probe into his role, an overhaul of the exam system, and the publication of a "fixed annual exam and recruitment calendar" where the exam and result dates, and appointment timelines are declared in advance.
Gogoi spoke after two civil services aspirants explained the "mental torture" they faced over the cancellation of exams, and allotment of centres far away from their homes.
Gogoi said: "A media article published on July 31, 2024, reported that there have been approximately 89 suspected paper leak incidents over the last decade, affecting around 6.5 crore candidates. You can see that this isn't just about a single paper leak or a single year. According to the report, re-tests were conducted for at least 48 exams, and 22 exams were cancelled before they could even take place. This leads to what our friends called mental torture."
He added: "It has been decided that if our demands are not addressed by August 9, we will raise the Delhi Chalo call under Rahulji's leadership. Students from across the country will come to Delhi to lay siege to Parliament and demand the resignation of our incompetent education minister, who has now earned the nickname 'Leak Pradhan'."
From June 30, Congress activists would distribute pamphlets and meet students in 28 big cities. Throughout July, this would spread to the rest of the country with campus outreach and meetings in hostels — especially those reserved for Scheduled Castes, Tribes, and OBCs, a party source told The Telegraph.
When asked what the Congress wants to replace the current exam system with, Gogoi replied: "Through the 40-day campaign, the party is reaching out to various states, coaching centres, universities, and college campuses to understand what students want and what they feel should be done. We will then assimilate these inputs."
On cooperation with other groups, he said: "Let us first implement our agenda and our plan; let us first learn and understand what the students are telling us.... Let us reach that 40-day milestone before looking beyond our party."