IYC workers shave heads; police book protestors under new laws
New Delhi: Raising slogans against the BJP-led Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA), the student outfits of some INDIA bloc parties staged a protest at the Jantar Mantar here on Wednesday against alleged irregularities in several competitive exams.
In a separate protest, the Congress’ youth wing, Indian Youth Congress (IYC), staged a demonstration against the irregularities near the protest site. Several Youth Congress workers shaved their heads as a sign of protest while raising “anti-Modi” slogans.
The members of the Left-backed All India Students Association (AISA), Student Federation of India (SFI), All India Students’ Federation (AISF), along with the Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha and the Congress’ students wing NSUI gathered at the Jantar Mantar to take out a march.
The student groups aimed to march to the Parliament to press for their demands of scrapping the National Testing Agency, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation and decentralisation of entrance tests.
However, the students were not able to hold the march due to heavy police deployment and barricading at the site.
They also demanded re-examination of the medical entrance test NEET-UG for all candidates, who had appeared in the May 5 exam.
Meanwhile, the police has registered an FIR under the new criminal laws against some students, who have been staging an indefinite sit-in at the Jantar Mantar against alleged rigging in the NTA
held examinations. Over a dozen students from various outfits, including AISA and KYS, were detained while attempting to march to Parliament.
Their protest, now in its eighth day, aligns with the INDIA bloc’s “Sansad
Gherao” call.
An FIR was also filed against NSUI president Varun Choudhary for locking the NTA office. The NTA recently released re-test results for 1,565 candidates.
In the line of fire over the alleged irregularities in the NEET and the PhD entrance NET, the Centre removed NTA Director General Subodh Singh last week and notified a high-level panel headed by former ISRO chief R Radhakrishnan to ensure transparent, smooth, and fair conduct of examinations through the NTA.
