Even as the Centre renewed attempts to reach out to both the protesters and the Opposition, the deadlock — inside and outside Parliament — continued on Thursday.
Both the CJP, which is leading the protests at Jantar Mantar, and the Opposition remained firm on their demand for Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation over the NEET-UG paper leak.
Appealing to protesters to come forward for talks, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said the government’s “doors are always open for talks with the students”. He said that in the last 24 hours, the government had invited the CJP for talks “at least four times”. He added that the protesters could come to either Health Minister J P Nadda’s residence or his office for talks.
CJP spokesperson Saurav Das, however, said the ministers could come to Jantar Mantar or a neutral venue like the Constitution Club of India. “We will meet there. I have not received any message from their side yet. They should contact us directly and discuss where to meet, when to meet and how long the discussion continues,” Das said.
According to sources, the CJP has indicated that there would be no compromise on its demand for Pradhan’s resignation. The outfit has called for a nationwide protest on Friday.
Meanwhile, Parliament proceedings were disrupted for the fourth straight day on Thursday, amid protests and counter-protests outside the House, and sloganeering by both the Treasury and Opposition benches inside.
While Opposition MPs reiterated their demand for Pradhan’s resignation, their counterparts in NDA criticised them for not agreeing to a discussion on the issue in the House.
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The Opposition, barring the DMK and AAP, are learnt to have agreed to seek Pradhan’s resignation as a pre-condition for any discussion in Parliament. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, meanwhile, made multiple appeals to the Opposition to agree to a discussion without any pre-conditions.
At a meeting in the morning, leaders from Opposition parties including the Congress, SP, TMC, Shiv Sena (UBT), Left parties, NCP and IUML decided to intensify their demand for Pradhan’s resignation.
While Rijiju has been reaching out to Opposition leaders separately, the government hopes the floor leaders will come together for a meeting on Friday. “The ball is in their court. We will keep appealing,” Rijiju said.
On Thursday, the two sides came face to face, raising slogans against each other, near Parliament’s Makar Dwar.
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The Opposition side was led by CPP chairperson Sonia Gandhi, LoP Rahul Gandhi, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, SP president Akhilesh Yadav and NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule. On the other side were NDA members including JD(U)’s Sanjay Jha, BJP’s Manoj Tiwari, Tarun Chugh and Dilip Saikia, among others.
After the protest, Vadra said: “Have you ever seen, in the history of our democracy, government MPs protesting outside Parliament? They cannot run Parliament; they are extremely weak and cowardly. What kind of treatment is being meted out to the youth?” She asked why PM Narendra Modi wasn’t “taking responsibility for the paper leaks”. Gandhi said, “You (Modi) allowed and encouraged the total capture and destruction of our education system — and protected every person responsible for it.”
BJP MP Dilip Saikia said the ruling members staged a protest against the obstruction “created by the Congress-led Opposition in the running of Parliamentary proceedings”. “We urge the Congress not to run away and to participate in the vital discussions in Parliament regarding the students of our country,” he said.
BJP RS MP K Laxman said he joined the protest at Makar Dwar against the INDIA bloc “repeatedly disrupting the proceedings of both Houses.” BJP MP Anurag Thakur said: “Don’t use youth to advance your politics, don’t exploit their movement for political gains. If you have the courage, come and take part in the discussion.”
