Hundreds of students, parents, working professionals and activists affiliated to various organisations gathered at Freedom Park in Bengaluru on Thursday (July 23) in support of the ongoing protest led by Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET paper leak and fast undertaken by climate and education activist Sonam Wangchuk.

While the protest was organised by Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (DSS), several organisations including All India Students Association (AISA), All India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO), political parties including Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bengaluru Navanirmana Party (BNP) and others came in support of students and demanded resignation of Mr. Pradhan.

Colourful slogans

Raising slogans, the protestors lit candles and switched on their mobile torches as night descended, in an expression of solidarity. They held placards with clever puns and word play. A pregnant woman held a placard that read, “Pregnancy craving: Accountability.” A young child on her father’s shoulder held one that said, “Dharmendra uncle, please get up from the chair. I want a better education system.” Yet another said, “The kids are here to school you.”

Naman, a theatre artist, held a placard and a rod symbolising lathis used by the police against the students during the protest in Delhi. He said, “I was part of the protest in Delhi on July 21 but when the police took out their lathis and started charging the protesters, I ran off. Today, I am holding this placard and rod so that anybody can come hit me with this rod. I will not run away in fear but continue to question the government.” He is in the city for a show of the play The Big M of Madness, in which he plays a role.

Return to old system

B.T. Lalitha Naik, author and former Minister, who was part of the protest, said, “NEET and National Testing Agency have to be scrapped by the Central government. Students and parents will be happy if they bring back the old system of States conducting entrance exam for admissions to MBBS programme.”

Ganga, a student from St. Joseph’s College pursuing Masters in Economics and part of AISA, said the protest across the nation will continue until the Education Minister resigns. “We have four demands. We want Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation and scrapping of NEET and centralised entrance exams. We want NTA and National Education Policy (NEP) done away with. We also want commercialisation and saffronisation of education to end.”