Congress, Sena (UBT) Vow To Continue NEET Leak Protests
The Congress leader said the party would escalate its protests across the country, including by organising nationwide candlelight marches to demand accountability and a thorough investigation into the examination process.
Mumbai: The Maharashtra Congress and its alliance partner, the Shiv Sena (UBT), on Saturday said their protests over the alleged NEET paper leak would continue despite Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation. While the Congress said it would intensify its agitation until Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologises, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray warned that the youth would shift their protests towards Union Home Minister Amit Shah if the Centre failed to act against alleged police excesses on protesting students.
Maharashtra Congress president Harshvardhan Sapkal said the party would not back down until strict action was taken against all those allegedly involved in the paper leak racket, Parliament discussed the issue, cases against protesting students were withdrawn, and the Prime Minister publicly apologised to the nation.
“While Mr. Pradhan was ultimately forced to resign, there is no reason to celebrate just yet. Under his tenure, paper leaks occurred 152 times through the ‘One Nation, One Examination’ system to benefit a specific group and BJP affiliates. The roots of this corruption run deep, and our protests will not stop with just one resignation,” Mr. Sapkal alleged.
The Congress leader said the party would escalate its protests across the country, including by organising nationwide candlelight marches to demand accountability and a thorough investigation into the examination process.
Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray addressed a joint press conference after Mr. Pradhan’s resignation. They said the rally jointly organised by their parties in Mumbai on Sunday would go ahead as scheduled to congratulate the country’s youth.
Mr. Thackeray alleged that the police, along with “criminal elements”, were used to assault protesting students. “Who is going to register cases against the police? Will they track down and take action against the plainclothes goons who were infiltrated there, or not? Amit Shah must clarify right now whether the cases filed against these students will be withdrawn. If no action is taken against the police who unleashed brutal force and lathi-charged these youths, then these young people will have no choice but to shift the focus of their protest march from Dharmendra Pradhan to Amit Shah,” he said.
Mr. Thackeray also said he was trying to contact student leader Abhijit Dipke to tell him the future course of the agitation.
“I am trying to reach Abhijit to communicate the future direction of this protest. I am trying to call, but perhaps the network there is jammed or jammers have been installed. After speaking with them, everyone will proceed according to what Abhijit and his colleagues decide,” he said.
