Renowned educationist and activist Sonam Wangchuk on Saturday hailed the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) for finally getting Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign—a key demand of its protests over the past few weeks.
Wangchuk, whose June 28 hunger strike became an important turning point in the CJP protests for accountability in the education sector, could be seen in the Medanta Hospital, flashing the victory symbol after the major breakthrough for the CJP.
"From accountability, now to reforms," he wrote in an X post, thanking the CJP in particular, and Gen Z in general, for seeing the protests through till the end.
"It's a victory of democracy ... direct democracy ... straight from the streets. It's a victory of peace, patience, and perseverance," he added, a day after breaking his indefinite hunger strike.
In his resignation letter addressed to students, Pradhan declared that he was resigning on moral grounds.
"Considering the situation that has developed at Jantar Mantar and across the country—that anti-national forces should not take advantage of this situation, that the unity of the country should be preserved, that not even a single student's future should get entangled in legal complications, and that our children should devote their time to studies and focus on building their careers—I have sent my resignation to the Hon'ble Prime Minister," the letter read.
Apart from Wangchuk's hunger strike, which led to him losing more than 10kg and more than 65 MPs across the board urging him to break his fast, the CJP protesters themselves had alleged police brutality during the protests at Jantar Mantar.
While many faced lathi charges and tear gas from the Delhi Police, some women even alleged that they were molested and harassed amid the protests, while the police too claimed that some of their personnel were attacked and public property destroyed.
The CJP protests had also struck a chord with the Opposition while it had been spreading on a nationwide scale, which helped amplify it in scale.
With all its key demands met, the CJP on Saturday officially ended its protest, as the Centre begins the process to transfer the education portfolio to another leader, and strengthen existing norms—especially those around paper leaks.
