On Thursday, while protesting against the cancellation of the UGC-NET examination and irregularities in the NEET, over twenty-two university students as well as members of various student organizations were locked up.
According to PTI, the students were taken into custody from both the Ministry of Education's exterior and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's home in this part of central Delhi.
There were a lot of students who took part in the protest, including members of political organizations like the Democratic Students' Front (DSF), All India Students Association (AISA), Students' Federation of India (SFI), Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS), and NSUI, which is associated with the Congress.
The students gathered in front of Pradhan's home and the Education Ministry, calling for an investigation into the alleged paper leak and a ban on the National Testing Agency (NTA), which administers the test.
Late on Wednesday night, the Union Education Ministry issued an order to cancel UGC-NET due to reports that the exam's integrity had been compromised.
"We have noticed significant irregularities in the NEET-UG results declared on 4 June. As a result, NEET aspirants have been calling for a re-examination. However, the NTA and the Ministry of Education have not responded to their demands.
"Now the UGC NET examination has been cancelled due to paper leak... NTA has failed students time and again. We demand a complete scrapping of the NTA," AISA unit of JNU in a statement said, as quote
The groups claimed that students who participated in the protest were physically and verbally abused by the police. Female students were heckled and manhandled brutally, said the SFI to PTI.
"Instead of addressing the concerns of the students and holding the NTA accountable, the Delhi Police brutally attacked and detained several students including JNUSU representatives from the protest site," the DSF said as quoted by PTI. The police denied the allegations, stating that section 144 still applies and that no authorization was obtained to protest in the high security area.
According to PTI, the student outfits also called for Union Education Minister Dharmender Pradhan to resign due to allegations of exam corruption. A number of National Students' Union of India protestors were arrested earlier in the day outside Pradhan's home in this city. Varun Choudhary, national president of the NSUI, threw a bag full of fake money into the air during the demonstration and called for an immediate investigation into the situation.
