Will They Join Full-Time Politics? What CJP Leaders Told NDTV

"Never say no to anything in India," said one of the leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party when asked if he would join politics full-time.  The CJP, whose month-long agitation over the NEET paper leak culminated in Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation, has however ruled out any immediate move into full-time politics, saying their priority is to strengthen a youth-led grassroots movement.In an interview with NDTV shortly after the Centre accepted the key demands of the protesters, CJP spokespersons Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das talked about the future of their campaign and whether the group could eventually evolve into a political outfit."The only thing on my mind is to go home and sleep, get some rest, and meet my family. I have been away from home for the last couple of months and I really want to just relax, just reflect on all that has happened in the last two months. I think it's overwhelming for all of us. It is a moment for pride. It is a moment to be really happy, to be relieved. And after that, we will see how it goes," Ranka told NDTV. READ | Did CJP's 72-Hour Ultimatum Trigger Dharmendra Pradhan Exit? Inside StoryWhen asked directly whether he was ruling out a political career, he replied, "Never say no to anything in India is what I feel."Saurav Das, however, insisted that politics was not the group's immediate objective."Right now our focus is very clear that this movement has to go to the grassroots because there are 750-800 political parties already. None of them are able to fulfil the wishes of the youth. And we want to take this movement to the grassroots so that be it any political party or political leader in power, they will be able to work for the youth and fulfil their demands. That is our agenda right now," Das told NDTV. The remarks came on the day Dharmendra Pradhan resigned as Union Education Minister after weeks of protests over the NEET paper leak controversy. In his resignation statement, Pradhan said the developments of the past 10 days had "saddened" him deeply and that the issue was "not a matter of personal prestige".He said he did not want "anti-national forces" to exploit the situation and wanted to ensure that "the unity of the nation remains intact", that "the future of even a single student should not become entangled in legal complications", and that students could focus on their studies.Pradhan became only the second Union minister during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tenure to resign following a public controversy. The first was M  Akbar, who stepped down as Minister of State for External Affairs in 2018 after sexual harassment allegations emerged during the #MeToo movement.His resignation marked a big shift in the government's response to an agitation that began on June 20, when the CJP launched an indefinite protest at Delhi's Jantar Mantar.The movement, led by former AAP functionary Abhijeet Dipke, began as a satirical online campaign in May before evolving into one of the largest youth-led protests in recent years.Asked what had changed in the final meeting with BJP president JP Nadda and Union Minister Jitendra Singh, Ranka said the atmosphere differed from previous rounds of negotiations. According to Ranka, Pradhan's resignation had already taken place before the CJP delegation entered the meeting."The meeting today was quite cordial. I think the resignation had already happened by the time we reached. The discussion was mostly centred around the remaining two demands. And very soon the agreement was reached, and then all of us just decided to do it all together, make sure that, you know, this ends in a cordial way. And we really appreciate the gesture from the government to, you know, accept the demands the way we wanted them," he said. The Centre had first opened talks with the CJP leadership on July 20. It also held discussions with activist Sonam Wangchuk, whose decision to join the protest on June 28, gave the movement fresh momentum.Wangchuk ended his fast on Thursday night.A second round of talks was held at the Constitution Club after the government agreed to the CJP's demand that negotiations be shifted from a minister's residence to what the protesters described as a neutral venue. A final round of discussions on Saturday focused on the remaining demands.One of the issues discussed in the final meeting concerned the withdrawal of criminal cases filed against protesters. Asked whether the government had agreed to withdraw every FIR or only those against peaceful demonstrators, Ranka distinguished between protesters and those accused of serious crimes."I'm pretty sure, I'm pretty sure we can differentiate between serious criminals and peaceful protesters. The CJP has been, since day one, advocating for an extremely peaceful protest, and that's exactly what we achieved in last 37 days. The agreement, and I'm pretty sure the written agreement would be in place soon, but the agreement which has been reached is around withdrawal of FIRs against all the protesters and organisers, and no future FIRs on CJP organisers and protesters," Ranka told NDTV. Why did it take so long?The agitation lasted nearly a month before the government accepted its central demand. Asked what he believed had changed within the government's thinking, Ranka said the question should be directed at those in power."I think that's a question you probably should ask the government. That's exactly what we asked Mr Nadda as well, that why did it take 30 days of students being on the streets, of the event of the extent of 20th July for the government to respond? Probably the government should have reached out much earlier," Ranka said. "We are all educated people. We are not seasoned protesters. All of us have been working professionally. We had nothing to do with politics or these issues. Dipke was studying in Boston. He would have probably started looking out for jobs after this," he added. Pradhan suggested in his resignation letter that some people had attempted to exploit the agitation. Asked about those remarks, Ranka said he hoped the government would stop portraying the protesters as enemies of the nation."I mean, I don't want to get into the nitty-gritties of it, but I hope he still doesn't want to call us anti-nationals or viruses, which exactly was being called to us for quite some time. At the end of the day, I think justice has been served," Ranka said.