AISA to conduct campaign for Pradhan’s resignation

All India Students’ Association (AISA) on Wednesday announced a campaign ‘Cockroaches on the streets’, where they will be campaigning across locations in Delhi for the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the scrapping of the National Testing Agency (NTA) amid controversies and irregularities in the conduct of examinations.

The poster for the campaign comes days after AISA joined a protest called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which has called itself a ‘political movement’. While AISA has not declared its support for the party yet, it has said it is in solidarity with the cause of the protests being conducted by the CJP which are asking for the resignation of the Education Minister.

The CJP is conducting nationwide protests from June 11, starting with a protest in Pune. Its first protest was held in Delhi at Jantar Mantar last weekend. AISA’s campaign will also kick off on June 11 and continue till June 18. The campaigning, which will include distribution of pamphlets and speaking to students about their concerns, will take place in areas such as Delhi University’s North Campus, Hauz Khas, Mukherjee Nagar among other areas.

Meanwhile, Joint Forum for Movement on Education (JFME), which represents teachers, students, parents, from multiple universities and colleges, conducted a press conference in Delhi on Wednesday, calling for the resignation of the Education Minister, dismantling the NTA, rolling back the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, and complete physical re-evaluation of CBSE Class 12 answer sheets without any extra charges.

“In the wake of these catastrophic failures, the government’s response has been nothing short of an insulting charade. Instead of accepting and addressing the deep systemic rot, officials have vehemently denied or offered tokenistic damage control, sacrificing low-level scapegoats and ordering re-evaluation or re-tests, leaving the corrupt foundation completely intact,” read a statement issued by the JFME.