CHENNAI: As many as 180 members, including 35 women, of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) were detained by the Greater Chennai Police near Rajarathinam Stadium in Egmore on Wednesday for protests in solidarity with the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) over the alleged NEET-UG question paper leak.
The protesters were demanding the scrapping of NEET and the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
While they were released later in the day, SFI and DYFI functionaries claimed that six protesters sustained injuries during police action over the past two days and were admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.
Five have since been discharged, while one remains under treatment. DYFI leader V Arun Kumar alleged that the police detained students within an hour of the protest at Tiruvottiyur despite the demonstration being peaceful. Similar protests were held across the state on Wednesday.
The CPM, the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) and the CPI extended support to the agitation and criticised the police action. CPM state secretary P Shanmugam, in a statement, alleged that police entered educational institutions in Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Cuddalore and Thanjavur to detain protesting students, calling it a violation of democratic rights.
In a statement, ‘We The Leaders’ founder K Annamalai backed the students’ right to protest while cautioning them against vested interests hijacking the movement.
Recalling his support for NEET as a merit-based admission system, he said repeated paper leaks had eroded public confidence and called on the union government to engage with students and restore trust in the examination process.
However, Annamalai stopped short of demanding the abolition of NEET or a return to Class XII marks-based medical admissions.