The legacy of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Dr Ambedkar, MK Gandhi, Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule, along with the values of the Constitution, is visible across the protest site. The heavily barricaded, police-paramilitary dotted and constantly surveilled stretch of Jantar Mantar reverberates with cries of "Inquilab Zindabad" and the determination of a generation refusing to surrender its future.
While the CJP phenomenon was triggered by the "cockroaches and parasites" remarks of the CJI, the encampment at Jantar Mantar is the expression of a much deeper anger. It is the accumulated rage of a generation that has witnessed paper leak after paper leak, corruption after corruption, and the systematic destruction of public education.
When CJP founder Abhijit Dipke returned to India and addressed a gathering at this very site on June 6, alongside several student organisations, he issued a clear warning. If Dharmendra Pradhan refuses to vacate his chair, the youth will not vacate Jantar Mantar. The movement will remain where it is until the Education Minister walks out of the ministry. He also warned against attempts by those in power to divide the youth through the poison of communal politics, declaring that the youth of the country will defeat every such attempt.
As the youth protest continues with creative zeal, activists from the All India Students' Association (AISA), along with other Left-democratic student organisations, have extended their support to the movement. This adds to the already brewing larger student movement in the country against attempts to turn education into a machine that produces irrational and unscientific minds, corporate slaves and communal storm troopers.
Speaking at the protest, AISA President Neha said that in this country the future of 22 lakh students is ruined by an incompetent Education Minister and the corruption-ridden National Testing Agency, which conducts examinations that decide the future of lakhs of young people.
"So what right does the Education Minister have to remain at the helm of the ministry?" she asked.
"So today the youth are on the streets with a clear demand: Dharmendra Pradhan has to go."
She added that what we are witnessing across the country is a complete disregard for the lives and livelihoods of youth, students, workers, women, farmers and all toiling sections of society by the Modi regime.
"Students are committing suicide because of paper leaks. Students are being lathi-charged and tear-gassed for asking for trains to reach examination centres. Is this the India that our freedom movement and freedom fighters envisioned?
"We, the people of India, build this country, but we see our dreams and our future being pushed into darkness and crushed under the boots of the police. If we ask questions, the government, its IT Cell and the Godi media brand us anti-nationals. We refuse to be silenced and we refuse to tolerate this system of corruption and non-accountability because we follow the legacy of Shaheed Bhagat Singh."
As the movement spreads, the BJP-Sangh ecosystem has gone into overdrive to delegitimise and discredit it. The familiar script is being repeated once again. Protesters are branded "Pakistanis", "anti-nationals" and "foreign-funded agents", accused of sabotaging Modi's Viksit Bharat vision and conspiring to create anarchy. Whenever the youth raise questions, those in power reach for the language of fear and division.
"Whose vikas are they talking about?" asked Danish Ali, Joint Secretary of JNUSU and AISA leader. "The only vikas taking place is that of the paper mafia and education thieves. The development we are seeing is only for Adani, Ambani and the corporates."
"Today, every examination is shadowed by uncertainty. Students spend years studying, families spend lakhs of rupees and many take loans to sustain coaching and education. Yet when the day of the examination arrives, students are left wondering whether their hard work will matter at all or whether another paper leak will render their efforts meaningless."
She added that a staggering 89 incidents of paper leaks have been reported over the past ten years. From JEE Main 2021, NEET-UG 2024, UGC-NET 2024 and several other examinations, the NTA has repeatedly demonstrated incompetence and utter disregard for students' education and hard work. Year after year, the saga of paper leaks continues across competitive examinations, but no serious action has been taken by the government. Instead, the corrupt and incompetent NTA continues to be shielded and provided political immunity.
On the evening of June 22, a candlelight vigil was held to pay homage to NEET aspirants who lost their lives to a corrupt education system. Initially, the police refused to allow candles to be brought inside the protest site, but the youth resisted the move and the police were forced to back off.
At least 93 NEET-linked student suicides have been recorded across India since 2021. This includes at least 14 student deaths reported in the first half of 2026, with a sharp spike during the stressful period following the examination's cancellation and subsequent re-examination.
Since the NEET paper leak controversy erupted in May, more than 12 NEET aspirants have taken their lives. The NEET examination itself has been at the centre of controversy, including its centralised structure, extreme seat scarcity, commercialised coaching culture, and the immense anxiety and psychological distress it has generated among aspirants and their parents.
This is not the first time the police have attempted every possible tactic to stop the movement. On the first day of the protest, the police resorted to multiple measures including threats of large-scale deployment, blowing whistles continuously in an attempt to disrupt the protest, restricting access to water, electricity and toilets. After failing to suppress the protest, the police eventually withdrew these aggressive manoeuvres.
Many have asked why the police retreated when they are otherwise notorious for wielding lathis and tear gas even against small acts of dissent. According to sources, this was because the movement, which emerged from social media and channelled the growing anger among the youth, proved difficult to predict even for the authorities and intelligence agencies, who were uncertain about the consequences of any heavy-handed crackdown.
The protest is also witnessing an increasing intersection with struggles of different sections of society. Workers' struggles, issues concerning transgender communities and several other people's movements are finding expression from the stage at Jantar Mantar.
As Neha says, every struggle of oppressed and suffering people is interconnected, and such solidarity strengthens the larger cause of justice.
On June 21, comrades from the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) were welcomed on stage. Comrade Sucheta De, AICCTU leader and former JNUSU President, extended solidarity to the ongoing Jantar Mantar protest demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over repeated examination leaks and the betrayal of India's youth.
Referring to the recent struggles of workers in Manesar and Noida, she stressed that students and workers are confronting the same system of exploitation and unaccountability. While workers are forced to fight for wages and dignity, students are compelled to fight for education and a future free from corruption.
Comrades Urmila, Shyam Kishore and other workers joined in solidarity with the students' demands and shared the experiences of workers' struggles.
"Indefinite protest will continue until Dharmendra Pradhan is shown the door," declared AISA leader Anjali. She added that this is the same country where farmers fought unitedly against pro-corporate farm laws and compelled the government to withdraw them. "The need of the hour is that all struggling people - workers, farmers, students, teachers, Muslims, women and all marginalised sections of society - unite and resist the onslaught on their lives, rights and livelihoods."
Today at Jantar Mantar, this idea of unity among struggling people is taking concrete shape, block by block, slogan by slogan and struggle by struggle. As the encampment enters another day, the message from the youth remains unchanged and uncompromising: not an inch back, Dharmendra Pradhan must go.
