Wads of ‘cash’ were thrown around the streets of Delhi as students protested against the Centre’s move to scrap the UGC-NET exam – conducted to appoint Assistant Professor posts in universities and colleges and determine the eligibility of junior research fellowships – after questions were raised over the test’s integrity.
Members of the Congress-affiliated NSUI, protesting outside Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s home, were also detained.
NSUI’s national president Varun Choudhary appealed to the Education Minister to take immediate and decisive action – banning the NTA and initiating legal proceedings against its officials.
He then climbed atop a car and threw a bag of fake currency in the air – sending ‘cash’ flying, to highlight the alleged corruption in the UGC-NET and NEET-UG exams. He and the other protesters were soon dragged away by the police and pushed into buses.
“I have come here with money for Dharmendra Pradhan. Let him restore my future in exchange for the money,” one protester said after being detained.
“We want justice,” he added.
“The Education Minister can do anything for money. There’s a huge scam happening,” said another.
The All India Students’ Association – the student wing of the Left – demonstrated outside Shastri Bhawan in Delhi. Visuals from the spot showed the police detaining the protesters and hurling them into vans. The protesters held posters that read “First NEET, then NET! NTA’s hall of shame is full”.
The Democratic Students’ Federation – an independent Left student organisation of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, according to their Facebook page – called for the scrapping of the NTA.
In an “SOS”, the DSF said, “The Delhi police has detained the students who were protesting at the MoE against the discrepancies in NET and NEET and the incompetency of NTA in conducting exams. Instead of addressing the concerns of the students, the Union government unleashed a brutal police attack. We demand the immediate release of all the detained students, and the Ministry should immediately have a democratic dialogue with JNUSU and other stakeholders and address the concerns of the students.”
Students clashed with the police, climbed on cars, and broke through barricades as they held up posters and raised slogans calling for an investigation into the serious charges of corruption and paper leaks. The police moved in promptly detaining several protesters, who have alleged a “brutal” police attack on them, and demanded their immediate release.
Visuals from the spot showed protesters being hurled onto buses and taken away from the area.
On Wednesday, amid the raging controversy over NEET, the Ministry of Education cancelled the UGC-NET exam, also conducted by the NTA, just a day after it was held. Over nine lakh candidates had taken the exam.
