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Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president and Leader of Opposition in Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, on Saturday lauded the youth after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned owing to widespread student-led protests across the nation over the NEET paper leak.
In a video posted on social media, Naveen Patnaik said, "Gen Z, I'm proud of all of you. You are indeed the strength of our democracy." Dharmendra Pradhan resigned as the education minister following over a month-long protest, especially led by Cockroach Janata Party at Jantar Mantar along with a 26-day-long hunger strike by activist Sonam Wangchuk. Pradhan submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that he wanted to ensure that the protests over examination irregularities were not exploited by "anti-national forces." Naveen Patnaik and the BJD had also joined the call for Pradhan's resignation, supporting the students' agitation and condemning the police action against protesters on July 20. Meanwhile, the CJP has withdrawn their agitation, saying the decision was taken in "good faith" after receiving assurances from the government. CJP's Chief Spokesperson Saurav Das said, "Cockroach Janta Party declares that we withdraw the agitation in good faith, with the understanding that the agreed-upon terms will be executed within the agreed-upon timelines." CJP said that the Central government has agreed to provide suitable compensation to the families of the NEET aspirants who died by suicide and assured to withdraw the FIRs lodged against protesters anywhere in India. Union Minister JP Nadda said the government had considered and accepted the demands during talks over reforms in the education examination system and other issues related to the protests. Nadda said the government would carefully examine the outfit's five-point charter on examination reforms and take necessary steps after discussions. In a press conference at the Constitution Club, Nadda said, "This five-point charter, which you gave me, is related to reforms in education examinations. Regarding it, we have to say that we will think deeply about your charter for reforms in education examinations and after talking to your delegation, we will try to do whatever we can. So, these were their demands. I think the government has sympathetically considered all the demands they had made and has also accepted them." (ANI)
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