Govt will set up fast-track courts on paper leaks, assures PM Modi

Centre invites protesters for talks, but CJP says move sidesteps accountability

Three days after police baton-charged youths marching to Parliament to protest examination paper leaks, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi reached out to them on social media, while government interlocutors urged the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) to agree to talks. Modi announced that the government will set up fast-track courts to hear alleged exam paper leak cases.

 

CJP called for a nationwide protest on Friday and said the PM’s post did not address its demand to fix accountability for the exam paper leaks, and that Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan must resign. In Parliament, the government offered to hold a discussion on the issue of paper leaks, while the Opposition said Pradhan should first be sacked.

 

 

By evening, the Union home ministry suspended mobile internet services until midnight within a 1.5-kilometre radius of the protest site at Jantar Mantar in the heart of the national capital. CJP also posted an advisory from the New Delhi Traders Association instructing all shops in Connaught Place to shut by 6.30 pm under the directions of the New Delhi Municipal Council. “What does the government plan to do?” CJP asked in a post on X. The closure of 17 Metro stations and security restrictions around the protest site at Jantar Mantar threw traffic out of gear across central Delhi.

 

In a post on X at 9.07 am, the PM said ensuring the welfare of and a brighter future for the country’s youth is the top priority of his government. He announced that the government will set up fast-track courts to deliver “swift and stringent punishment for those involved in paper leaks”.

 

“I have directed the authorities concerned and officials to take all necessary steps in this regard,” he said. It was his first direct acknowledgement of the protests. On Tuesday, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju had briefed the media on Modi’s address at a meeting of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Members of Parliament, where he termed paper leaks a “ghor paap” (grave sin).

 

CJP, which has led the protests against the alleged National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Neet) paper leak, said it would continue its agitation as the PM’s announcement did not address the core issue of fixing accountability. It insisted that Pradhan must resign. The party also shared reports on social media of an alleged examination paper leak at Uttarakhand Technical University.

 

Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda said the government is ready for further talks with the protesting youth, which can be held either at his office or residence. Two representatives of CJP met Nadda at his residence on Monday. Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh said the government has invited CJP for talks “at least four times” in the last 24 hours and appealed to the “students and young friends participating in this protest to come forward for a dialogue”.

 

“Our doors are open,” Singh said, describing it as a “humble appeal” on behalf of the government.

 

CJP Chief Spokesperson Saurav Das said the ministers could come to the protest site at Jantar Mantar or to a neutral venue such as the Constitution Club of India. “We will meet there. I have not received any message from their side yet,” Das said.

 

Responding to the PM’s social media post, CJP’s Ashutosh Ranka said setting up fast-track courts would not solve the problem of paper leaks. “The real question is why paper leaks are happening in the first place. That question must be answered,” Ranka said. He alleged that the agitation had widened beyond the demand for the education minister’s resignation and was now increasingly targeting the Centre’s leadership.

 

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi, who served as Union education minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government, on Thursday came out in support of the students protesting against the alleged Neet paper leak, saying their “anxieties and concerns” regarding the examination system are “genuine”. Joshi also criticised the police crackdown on the protesting students on Monday, calling it “merciless”. He said such use of force would alienate large sections of Indian society from the national goal of Viksit Bharat.

 

“It is painful to see young students from different parts of the country assembled for days on the streets of New Delhi. Their anxieties and concerns regarding the examination system are genuine and must be handled with empathy and a desire to find a lasting solution,” Joshi said in a post on X. “It is very painful to see that even young girls were brutally mishandled,” he said.

 

With PTI inputs