July 23, 2026: New Delhi- Jantar Mantar
The battle over the NEET-UG paper leak and examination irregularities took an even sharper political turn on Thursday as Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder and funder Abhijeet Dipke delivered a fiery address at Jantar Mantar, directly urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to accept the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. He warned that if the government continued to shield the minister, the growing anger of India’s youth would eventually be directed at the Prime Minister himself.
Standing before thousands of protesting students and supporters, Dipke argued that the crisis had moved far beyond a single examination and had become a test of the government’s willingness to protect the aspirations of millions of young Indians.
“Modi ji, I once again request you to accept Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation. Otherwise, the issue will not remain limited to Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation alone; it will come for your resignation also,” he declared, drawing loud cheers from the crowd.
Dipke accused the government of placing political loyalty above the future of students, arguing that an education minister facing widespread criticism over repeated examination controversies should not remain in office.
“If a failed and incompetent minister is considered more important than crores of students, then remember, the youth of this country will respond,” he said, warning that electoral consequences would follow if the government failed to act.
He also criticised what he described as the Centre’s delayed response to the nationwide outrage.
“It took the Prime Minister 34 days to publicly acknowledge the issue. Even today, the government continues to protect Dharmendra Pradhan. That is shameful,” Dipke said.
Perhaps his most emotional remarks came when he contrasted the government’s security arrangements at the protest site with its handling of examination leaks.
“If the same energy had been spent stopping paper leaks as was spent installing barricades, deploying police, and jamming communications around this protest, many young lives and futures could have been protected,” he told the gathering.
Government Signals Dialogue, But Venue Becomes the New Battleground
Even as rhetoric intensified, the Centre maintained that it remained open to discussions with the Cockroach Janta Party.
Union ministers J.P. Nadda and Jitendra Singh said the government had repeatedly invited CJP representatives for talks, suggesting meetings could take place at an official residence or government office.
The CJP, however, rejected the proposal.
Its leaders insisted that any dialogue must take place either at Jantar Mantar, where students have been protesting for days, or at a neutral venue such as the Constitution Club of India, arguing that discussions should occur in a public and transparent setting rather than behind closed doors.
CJP spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka accused the government of attempting to dictate the terms of engagement.
“Minister Jitendra Singh says they have reached out four times. We asked them to come to Jantar Mantar. They refused. They asked us to come to JP Nadda’s residence instead. If they truly want to hear the students, they should come where the students are,” Ranka told the crowd.
The disagreement over the venue has become symbolic of the larger standoff between the government and protesters, with each side accusing the other of being unwilling to engage on equal terms.
As demonstrations continue to spread across several states, the demand that began with calls for accountability over examination irregularities is rapidly evolving into a broader debate over governance, transparency, and whether the voices of India’s youth are finally becoming too loud to ignore. Human societies do have a remarkable gift for turning a meeting about a venue into a national political confrontation, but beneath the procedural sparring lies a very real question for millions of students waiting to see whether anyone in power is listening.
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