Jammu: The Congress on Saturday said it will ‘gherao’ Parliament on August 9 as part of its 40-day ‘Chhatro Ki Goonj’ campaign launched by Rahul Gandhi to highlight the issues afflicting students and youth of the country.
The announcement was made at a Press Conference here by AICC secretaries co-in-charge of J&K Affairs, Pargat Singh and Divya Maderna.
The two questioned the series of exam-related scams and paper leaks under the BJP regime, and demanded the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The Congress has identified 40 locations across the country, including Srinagar, for its protests as part of the campaign.
Addressing the press, Maderna said the youth of the country have been facing a great crisis for the past 10 years, witnessing 89 paper leaks and 48 re-exams that have ruined the future of lakhs of youth, and caused at least 93 to kill themselves.
“NEET paper has been leaked four times in recent years under the BJP rule,” she said.
She said a media outlet documented 41 recruitment paper leaks in 15 states in the past five years, disrupting recruitment schedules for approximately 1.4 Crore applicants competing for just 1 lakh jobs, which is an alarming situation in the country.
Pargat Singh accused the Narendra Modi govt of commercialising the education system and weakening institutions.
“The government should have sacked the education minister for the mess, but instead the prime minister is showering praises while extending birthday greetings to him,” he said.
The two leaders said Gandhi is fighting for the students to restore the derailed education system and save their future.
“The youth are seeing a ray of hope in Gandhi’s leadership… The Congress will continue this campaign for fixing accountability and push for the resignation of the education minister,” Pargat Singh said.