Centre steps up outreach to Wangchuk, agitators; activist puts a rider to call off protest

The government on Wednesday (July 22, 2026) moved up a notch its engagement with protesters against the NEET paper leakage, with Union Ministers J.P. Nadda and Jitendra Singh meeting activist Sonam Wangchuk, who responded from hospital with a statement that he was willing to call off the hunger strike if the Centre gave an assurance that no punitive or retaliatory action would be taken against the protesting students.

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Mr. Wangchuk’s statement also stated that the Ministers assured him of “a meaningful discussion in Parliament to ensure accountability, including consideration of the resignation of the Education Minister.” The statement appeared to be a change from earlier, when the resignation of the Education Minister had been the top demand. Late on Tuesday evening, Mr. Nadda and Mr. Singh, after a marathon meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah, made their way to Medanta Hospital in Gurugram, where Mr. Wangchuk has now been moved for treatment, and, as per sources, urged Mr. Wangchuk to appeal to students to repose faith in the government’s process and avoid further escalation.

By evening, Mr. Wangchuk put out his statement, where he noted that he had been visited by around 65 members of Parliament from various political parties who had also urged him to end his strike. He therefore requested “an unequivocal assurance from the government that none of the young protesters will face any punitive or retaliatory legal action for participating in this movement. Their only ‘offence’ has been to raise their voice for a fair and accountable education system.”

Coordination with States

Sources in the government said they were also going to coordinate with State governments on working out compensation for families that lost their children because of death by suicide attributed to cancellation of NEET exams.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday evening, Mr. Nadda, the main interlocutor for the government, said he was in talks with the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), and had met the delegation from that organisation, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, in a “good atmosphere” and had asked them to put their demands in writing. “We are in talks and we will continue to engage,” he said but admitted that no meeting with CJP leaders had taken place on Wednesday. He reiterated that Parliament was the correct forum to discuss the issue threadbare and that it required the government and the Opposition to come up with long lasting solutions for the paper leakage issue.

The government, therefore, appears to be more proactive in its outreach to quell the storm of protests on the NEET issue, which, some in the government admitted had taken them by surprise on July 20 with a well-attended protest march with an organically mobilised student protesters.

According to one senior Minister in the Union government in the know of things, the outreach to the CJP representatives and to Mr. Wangchuk was only one part of what the government and the BJP now feel is an issue they will have to deal with in a more seminal manner. “The protests are one part of the issue, even the Congress protesting is a more familiar ground of political combat for the party, but the number of people especially youngsters who are aggrieved, not just with regard to NEET but also anxieties regarding their future is something that we have to deal with,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, during one of his public meetings, countered the Congress’s “jitni abaadi utna haq” (to each according to their number) formulation for social justice based on a caste census, by coming up with four categories, which, he said, were universally applicable across India, farmers, poor, women and the youth. The NEET paper leakage protests have seriously dented the BJP’s appeal in the youth section of that formulation, a political conundrum the party knows it has to deal with before the Uttar Pradesh polls early next year.