CJP withdraws protest after Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, says all demands accepted

The Cockroach Janta Party on Saturday evening announced that it was withdrawing its protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar after talks with the Union government, saying that “all demands have been accepted”.

The campaign’s spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka asked demonstrators to return home peacefully, ANI reported.

The announcement came hours after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced his resignation.

Immediately after his resignation, however, the campaign had said it was “still waiting on the rest of the demands”, including compensation for families of undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test aspirants who died by suicide, withdrawal of police cases against protesters and action over the police crackdown.

Following talks with the government later in the day, Ranka asked protesters to return home peacefully.

“We will inform you of our future strategy or any other issues,’ he said. “But we request the protesters to withdraw immediately.”

Another spokesperson of the campaign, Saurav Das said the organisation was ending the agitation “in good faith”, with the understanding that “the agreed-upon terms will be executed within the agreed-upon timelines”.

Ranka said the government had agreed in principle to the demand for Rs 1 crore compensation for the families of NEET aspirants who died by suicide, adding that it would provide “an honorary compensation... under whatever rules and regulations allow”.

He added that the CJP had presented a five-point charter to the Union government on broader education and examination reforms and would meet the government again in about four weeks to discuss it further, ANI reported.

Das said the government had also accepted the demand to withdraw FIRs filed against protesters. “The government has assured that it will share copies of all the FIRs filed... within three to four days,” he said, adding that it had also assured the withdrawal of the cases and would receive written guarantees by Tuesday.

After the meeting, Union minister JP Nadda said the government had “sympathetically considered all the demands they had made and has also accepted them”.

He said the government would “think deeply” about the CJP’s five-point charter on examination reforms after discussions with the delegation.

Protesters say the movement not over

Some protesters told Scroll that the withdrawal of the agitation did not mark the end of their demands, and called wider reforms in the education system.

“Resignation is not the ultimate solution, so I believe that the education system should be more uplifted,” a protester said.

Another demonstrator warned that they would return with “double the numbers” if any of their demands were not met.

The protest

The agitation in the national capital began on June 6, when the Cockroach Janta Party began a protest at Jantar Mantar.

On July 19, thousands joined the protest in Delhi after the police forcibly took activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had been on a hunger strike, to hospital. A march to Parliament on Monday was met with a crackdown by the police. Dozens were injured as the police used lathis, fired tear gas shells and pellet guns against the demonstrators.

The police action turbocharged the agitation, which soon spread to other parts of the country.

Wangchuk ended his hunger strike after 26 days in the early hours of Friday at Gurugram’s Medanta Hospital in the presence of Union ministers Jitendra Singh and JP Nadda.

The activist on Saturday said that Pradhan’s resignation was a victory for peace, patience and perseverance.

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

• Follow updates about the youth protest here.

• Also read: What if Dharmendra Pradhan resigns?