Govt ready on 2 demands, CJP adamant on Pradhan's resignation: What happened in round 2 of talks

NEW DELHI: A delegation of the Cockroach Janata Party met Union ministers JP Nadda and Jitendra Singh on Friday for the second round of talks over the NEET paper leak protests, submitting three key demands and a five-point reform charter.The nearly two-hour meeting, held at the Constitution Club of India, ended without a final decision, with the government seeking time till Saturday afternoon to respond to the CJP’s demand for the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.Addressing reporters after the meeting, Union minister JP Nadda said the delegation had presented “three main demands and five reform suggestions for exams.”“The meeting went on for almost two hours. They had three main demands and five reform suggestions for exams,” Nadda said.“We have told them that we will meet them again tomorrow afternoon and tell them about the discussion we had within the government,” he added.CJP spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka said the government had expressed in-principle approval to two of the three demands but sought more time on the demand for Pradhan’s resignation.“The government has asked for time till tomorrow afternoon on our demand for Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation. We hope the government will remove him soon,” Ranka said.“The government has expressed in-principle approval on the two demands of compensation (for families of NEET aspirants who died by suicide) and withdrawal of FIRs and legal cases against students,” he added.CJP leader Saurav Das reiterated that the demand for Pradhan’s resignation was “non-negotiable.”“When Ashutosh and I went there, Union Ministers JP Nadda and Dr Jitendra Singh were also present. We clearly conveyed, both verbally and in writing, our three main demands. The first demand, which is non-negotiable, is that either Dharmendra Pradhan should resign or the government should dismiss him from the Cabinet,” Das said.He said the other two demands were compensation of Rs 1 crore for every family of a NEET aspirant who died by suicide and the withdrawal of FIRs and legal cases against students who participated in the protests.Das also said the delegation sought a written sovereign guarantee that no protesters would face similar action in the future.“The government showed a positive response to our second and third demands: compensation, withdrawal of FIRs, and a written sovereign guarantee that such FIRs would not be filed in the future. The government said that, in principle, it accepts these two demands. Therefore, we have been called for another meeting tomorrow,” he said.Key demands

This was the second meeting between the CJP and senior representatives of the Union government.On July 20, the delegation had met Nadda at his residence and submitted a petition seeking accountability over the NEET-UG paper leak. After that meeting, Nadda described the discussions as cordial and urged protesters to end their agitation and “assist the administration in restoring normalcy.”The latest round of talks also comes days after activist Sonam Wangchuk ended his 26-day hunger strike after receiving a written assurance from the Union government on addressing concerns related to the NEET examination and broader reforms in the country’s competitive examination system.