.png)
5 hours ago
6
A day after police dismantled the temporary infrastructure of protesters at Jantar Mantar during the “Sansad Chalo” march clashes, students, jobless youth, activists, and political supporters reassembled at the site. The protesters maintained that the use of force had not weakened their resolve to seek the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
“Throughout the day, protesters gathered at Jantar Mantar to express solidarity with the agitating Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), whose leaders stated that they felt betrayed after engaging behind the scenes with Union Health and Family Welfare Minister JP Nadda on Monday. Their three demands were: the release of environmental activist Sonam Wangchuk from the hospital, the resignation or dismissal from the cabinet of Dharmendra Pradhan, and compensation of Rs 1 crore to the families of more than 20 NEET aspirants who lost their lives.”
Questioning the intent of the NDA regime, founder of CJP, Abhijeet Dipke, stated: ‘The government wasted our time. They invited our delegation and seized their mobile phones. Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were, in a way, under house arrest at JP Nadda’s residence
In his address to supporters at Jantar Mantar, he also charged that “the whole plan was to scatter the team so that when there is chaos, no one is there. That is why they kept them sitting for five hours and wasted our time. You call for talks on one hand and unleash batons on students on the other.”
Sources said the government is open to further talks with the protestors, but there is no commitment to any timeline for the protestors, who met JP Nadda, regarding their demands. Sources also ruled out the resignation of Minister Pradhan but stated that the top brass of the government will deliberate on the responses to their two other demands.
Union Minister Nadda, however, visited two hospitals — Ram Manohar Lohia and Lady Hardinge — to meet the injured. He told reporters that he met with the injured and was satisfied with the treatment they received at the hospitals.
An official from RML Hospital, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that around 65 protesters and 10 police officials had come to the RML emergency room on Monday with injuries, including head injuries and leg fractures.
Recounting his experience at the protest site where he suffered a head injury, Anuj Gupta, a 19-year-old Delhi University student, said he was hit on the head twice by a police officer. “I suffered a blow and fell, but when I got up, he hit me again, and then I ran away. A friend took me to RML Hospital,” he added.
Hospital sources said many protestors also had broken ribs. “Protesters came in with crush injuries, fractures, eye injuries, chest trauma, blood in the abdomen, cut wounds, and lacerations over the head, limbs, and neck,” they added.
Protesters retained the stage on the second day and cleared the adjoining site, which was filled with muck due to overnight rains. A photograph of Wangchuk, alongside a copy of the Constitution, the Ramcharitmanas, a charkha, and a small Buddha statue, was placed as a symbol of continued public resistance to the government’s indifference regarding accountability.
Realising the spontaneity of youth anger that was spreading through social media across the country, more political parties, including the Congress, actively participated in the youth agitation. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, accompanied by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, Kerala CM VD Satheesan, and several top leaders, sat on a protest dharna outside the Prime Minister’s Lok Kalyan Marg residence. They were demanding the resignation of PM Narendra Modi over police action against students protesting the NEET paper leak issue.
The Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Jitendra Singh, met Gandhi at the protest site and urged him to end his dharna. Unprecedented scenes followed as the police picked up the Leader of the Opposition and other Congress leaders and forcibly removed them from the spot.
Responding to the Congress’ allegation of the use of force against the Leader of the Opposition and other leaders, Jitendra Singh posted on social media that, in view of the dignity of the senior Congress delegation, the government had sent him along with the Union Home Secretary, Govind Mohan, to the site to hold talks with them.
Rahul Gandhi was requested to end his protest because this site is not a designated protest location, and protesting here is causing significant inconvenience to the general public. Rahul Gandhi put forward the demand that if the government agrees to discuss NEET and all related issues connected to the movement in Parliament, he would end his protest immediately,” he said on X
AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal also joined the fray, demanding that the Delhi police reveal how many FIRs they have filed against the protestors. Meanwhile, people from Delhi and other states also ordered food through online platforms to feed the protestors, as delivery persons were seen handing over biryani and other items to them.
With inputs from Ankita Upadhyay
Published on July 21, 2026
English (US) ·