NEET paper leaks: Government offers discussion in House, Opposition presses for Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation

Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi outlined the Congress’s demands — Pradhan’s resignation, action against police personnel who allegedly used excessive force against the protesters on Monday, and an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the students.

Gandhi accused the Modi government of destroying India’s education system and said the demands of the protesters, including for Pradhan’s resignation, are fully legitimate.

Addressing a press conference, he said the protesting students are not terrorists and are only asking for an education system that is functional and fair. Asked whether Parliament would resume normal business Thursday, he said it was for the united Opposition to decide.

The government’s offer of a discussion in the House, announced by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju in Lok Sabha, could not end the stalemate as the Opposition insisted that the debate be taken up straightaway, setting aside all other business. Rijiju said the government was willing to hold a discussion but left it to Speaker Om Birla to arrive at a consensus on the rule under which it would be held, its date and duration. He said the Speaker should convene a meeting of floor leaders to work out the details of the discussion.

Congress’s K C Venugopal intervened to assert that the Opposition was also seeking Pradhan’s resignation. “Our demand is simple. When the entire nation is feeling the pain of our students, all other business of the House should be set aside and this burning issue should be the top priority for Parliament,” Venugopal said.

Some Opposition members appeared to be of the view that they could be willing for a discussion, even while insisting on Pradhan’s resignation.

Meanwhile, Congress MPs, wearing black clothes, staged a protest outside Parliament on Wednesday, a day after senior party leaders were detained from outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence.

As Parliament remained paralysed for the third day, the Opposition reached out to Wangchuk. Three Opposition MPs — Congress’s Vivek Tankha, CPI(M)’s John Brittas and Trinamool Congress’s Sagarika Ghose — held a nearly 45-minute meeting with the activist at Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon earlier in the day. They carried a letter signed by 18 MPs from different Opposition parties urging Wangchuk to end his fast. Among the signatories were Congress’s Shashi Tharoor, Kapil Sibal, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva and SP’s Ram Gopal Yadav.

“We, as Members of Parliament, request you to kindly withdraw your fast, while we take forward in Parliament the national mission and debate on educational reforms and the future of India’s youth, so passionately espoused by you. Just as the Union Territory of Ladakh needs Sonam Wangchuk, India needs you too — not in suffering, but in service; serving those causes that will benefit generations to come. The country needs you. We will also demand from the government, in the larger public interest, that no coercive action, whether by way of registration of any FIR or through any other administrative measure, be initiated or pursued against the protesters in connection with the peaceful democratic movement,” the MPs said in the letter.

They said his “message” for reform in the education system had been heard and received across the country. “We are with you and the students…The nation, especially its youth, needs your wisdom and guidance far more than your sacrifice,” they said.

Sources said Wangchuk primarily appeared concerned for the safety of the students, which was later reflected in his letter to Union Ministers J P Nadda and Jitendra Singh, where he sought an “unequivocal assurance from the government that none of the young protesters will face any punitive or retaliatory legal action for participating in this movement”.

In the evening, another group of 14 Opposition MPs, including AAP’s Sanjay Singh, CPI(M)’s A A Rahim and SP’s Rajeev Kumar Rai, sought to meet Wangchuk with another letter signed by 51 MPs, but were stopped by the police outside the hospital. After they sat on a protest outside the hospital, Wangchuk’s wife, Gitanjali Angmo, was allowed to meet them; they handed the letter to her.

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