CJP Protest: Rahul Gandhi Demands Dharmendra Pradhan's Resignation | Neet Paper Leak

[00:00:00]The war over education has moved from classrooms to the streets, from parliament to the courts and now to the center of India's political discourse.

[00:00:07]Leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi has swn his full weight behind the ongoing student protests. Calling Union Education Minister Dhandra Pradhan corrupt and incompetent. Rahul Gandhi has demanded his resignation saying the minister has become the symbol of everything that has gone wrong with public examination. Rahul Gandhi claims that in the last 10 years India has witnessed 152 paper leaks an average of one every month. According to him crows of students have suffered while there has been little accountability.

[00:00:37]What we do know is that 152 paper leaks have taken place over the last decade.

[00:00:50]If you do the math, so one a month, one a month approximately.

[00:01:02]Every month, lacks of students are told that all the stress that you went through, you're going to have to go through again.

[00:01:17]And after that they told we really don't care.

[00:01:21]>> He has also backed the students demand for action over the alleged police crackdown on protesters in Delhi saying those responsible must be held accountable.

[00:01:32]The first demand completely legitimate demand is that Mr. Dhmandra Pradhan who has failed as an education minister who is known to be corrupt should be relieved of his duties. Second demand every single person who raised a finger on our students and it doesn't matter who is the people who ordered it and the people who executed it should be made accountable. And the third thing is that the man who is running this entire system, the man who is finally accountable to all this should have the decency to apologize to the students for what has happened.

[00:02:19]Now the question is whether this will lead to another washed out session or a constructive engagement of the house.

[00:02:25]Second aspect is whether the students demand will get lost in the den of the narrative of mob violence versus genuine protest. And lastly, protests in India have become decoupled from the electoral results. Will this be any different? Will this be any different? And I'm joined by Zanab Sikandanda, political analyst, KB Prasad, senior journalist, Arun Nan, author and a political analyst and Vijay Pandai who joining me from studio is the input editor of News9. Let me straight away go to Zenna. Thank you. Uh my question to you is that if you look at the morphology of the protests in India in last five six years they're actually decoupled from the electoral results. If you look at the farmers protest uh it didn't make a dent in the results of Hana didn't make any uh dent in the results the way they came out in western UP in fact BJP swept there. So how do we look at these protests you know before we get into what's genuine what's not what's proxy because generally protests and podiatras have an electoral outcome in India they have been decoupled your thoughts on that >> um that's actually one of the best questions I've heard on these protests that two protests really you know on ground make a difference with the way people vote and in my opinion you know most of the protests that happened till now especially the farmers protest I think why it didn't have an effect on the way people voted is because by the end of it the farmer laws were repealed and there was some sense within the farmers that at least we were heard and there was so much infighting within the Congress in Hana and there was so much um tussle between the leadership you know that I think people in general thought that we would be wasting our vote if um you know and and by the way Congress also uh you know had a good amount of voting uh you know to themselves but it's just that h in hana you know BJP just worked most swiftly you know and then there were other alliance partners also which you know which uh had issues and therefore you know with the chalas and stuff and that's why I think hana showed a different result but the repealing of of the palm laws also had an effect in the way people voted you know and you know there is right now you know a sort of an upstreak with the way people think about BJP because they generally think that congress is a lazy party you know and and therefore all the criticism that right now Rahul Gandhi is getting for you know sitting outside local in front of the prime minister's uh house and they're calling him an immature leader, you know, for for um doing such a security breach. You know, I think there is no winning for Rahul Gandhi. If he wouldn't have done that, they would have said he's just giving lectures in an auditorium and he doesn't know how to do real politics on the ground. And if he actually sits in front of uh you know, the prime minister's office to, you know, make a big statement, sorry, prime minister's residence to make a big statement, then you know, they're saying he's an immature leader and he doesn't respect security. So there's no winning for Congress that way. As far as the student protests are happening now, I'll tell you there is a certain analogy which I think the central government is also making with the JNU protests. Okay, JNU per se in popular psyche is seen as a leftist university, you know, where so you know people don't take them seriously. But in this case you know the difference is that these are common man's children with no political ideology as such who are suffering and you know when a child suffers what you don't realize is you know the parents suffer the family suffers. So if the child is feeling a bit jaded with with concern to how the government is reacting to them, the apathy of the government, the indifference of the government, you know, the this utter silence which the central government thinks that it's it's their superpower, you know, staying quiet and not answering and not, you know, uh falling for demands, you know, not catering, not caving in for demands, you know, this this Modi government is particularly known for staying silent on important issues. So they think that you know they can tide over this student protest also but they can't because this student protest is very although I know cockroach Jantaa party you know was the starting point of it but now it has become a people's protest and there is no particular faction that is aligned with it there is no particular ideology it's just children >> there are children hold your thought for a minute you know generally what's happening in the last 15 20 years Arun is most of the protest when they said that they're apolitical in nature the demand is extremely political ical for example the Jenzi protest that took place in Nepal they said it's an apolitical protest but the entire repercussion of the protest was that the traditional politicians and the parties got displaced look at the Jenzi sort of protest which took place in uh Sri Lanka though they had respect for the constitutional order unlike what happened in Nepal where the leaders got targeted but it led to displacement of a Raja Paka family. So my question is that how do we frame this protest? Are we framing it from the uh narrative of a security? Are we framing it from a hindsight which is India against corruption and the gentleman turned out to be a swab politician? How do we frame this or and most important of all in the midst of what is being done? Are we losing the larger message that the students that the students genuinely want an educational reform in this country?

[00:07:38]I have laced three things together. I know I have laced three things together Aron.

[00:07:42]>> No, I think uh it's difficult to frame this thing uh this protest in a particular uh you know straight jacketed thing. It's uh it it started no it's a very interesting thing. It started with a comment of chief justice of India and then uh this party came into existence.

[00:08:01]See uh all the political leaders uh have now what I call graced the stage of you know all the political leaders in the opposition have graced the stage of this protest. It has not it is no more apolitical. The biggest strength of this protest when it started was that it was positioned as an a-olitical movement uh which is questioning certain governance related issues especially in the education sector. So this was primarily the strength of this uh movement but now that strength has waned away because it has become a purely political movement.

[00:08:37]The political parties in the opposition they have jumped on this bandwagon and they have uh you know kind of hijacked it and there's nothing wrong in it. This is the way politics is done. I'm not going into the merits or demerits of whether what they are doing is right or wrong. So one is that second is that while you know my fellow panelist was speaking at uh about the they know that this is about purely about children. So simultaneously on your screen certain visuals were running in which you know heavy stone pelting was happening you know uh these uh innocent children so they were you know targeting the public property and we have also seen you know while know there was a kind of a strong laty charge but right now also I can see the visuals on your screen simultaneously which are happening so we need to ask this I'm not passing judgment are these you know these innocent children who want educational reforms is this the way to basically demand it of course you know and you have gone to the even you know uh the government I'm not saying everything that government is doing is right but every government has its way of basically responding to the things it is not necessary that anytime a protest happen the government will immediately respond to it I'm not the government spokesperson but >> okay >> they have sent people to talk to and you see the blatant lie which these guys are see their leadership this Abhijit Deepk and this Sorav Daz so they are blatant liars it raises the they are saying that their phones were you know the representatives which they sent uh to talk to JP Nada in the government so they they their phones were kept away and there are you know the pictures which have come out so the phones are in their hand so it's you know and their last thing I want to say is they are absolutely changing the goalposts it started with the educational reform thing and now you see they are abusing Indian army they are you know targeting public property the kind of ruckus which they have created the kind of slogans I don't want to go into that they themselves have turned it into basically you know uh so it's a it's sad it's a missed opportunity it could have been a better you know uh uh it was a good opportunity to you know raise an issue of educational re reform wrong but I think it's a missed opportunity. Oh >> you're saying it's a missed opportunity Mr. Prasad but are we missing the larger picture that neat has become an issue and Mr. Pradhan has not responded as a minister as forcefully powerfully as he should have in terms of having a conversation with students and he has left it for other senior ministers to do the job for him. No, no. I think uh Karthik if I'm not mistaken there was a longest uh post on platform X by the minister himself talking about when commenting on the action of Rahul Gandhi and many else. Uh so I I I think the question is not just Mr. Quran himself of course he he can take take credit the government can take care of the retest was done in a fairly good manner and all that that's fine but the first misery that remained unressed to a large extent uh the fact remains these people were sitting in a peaceful protest uh till the day before uh at Pjunar Manta uh we didn't hear at least there was no public conversation about any reach out from the government or anybody body any emissary trying to understand what was exactly so probably the government said I don't know I have no idea because we only did not read my reports the question is these are students who belong to India it is uh it is not an organized political party per se because by the very declaration they have said we are not a political movement and yesterday I think the the poll you had mentioned in your showing shows that not many people even consider Mr. UK as their leader they are there for a cause they say right so when we are getting these mixed signals from the ground of course the government has to engage with its own people if there are issues if not you don't have to say at the top but there are there are always mechanisms in which these are addressed every political party will try and uh you know stir the political cauldron when it is available I mean when anar moment was happening you saw people in the party in the opposition also joined or started conversation. So that's that's the nature of politics. We understand that.

[00:13:10]But how do you keep it a political the farmers protest did not allow any political leaders to occupy the munch what most political leaders landed either was post the the police action if if you see the number of leaders who reached there. There were a few leaders who went before met sonuk and all that.

[00:13:30]So I think there is there are many shades emerging from it and the kind of response post Monday police action. uh because now people are questioning was it in proportion? Was it highly I mean okay and I have covered many demonstrations in parliament street between 92 and 96 personally and I know how these things happen and even in those days the police have spotters who identify miscreants and profile them properly among that they are very well trained people and nowadays they are using AI so I don't and if there are instances violence is totally unacceptable but there technology. I mean police is now AI platforms are available every time in every crowded place. So I I know that they are called as spotters.