IYC to intensify nationwide protests over exam irregularities, seeks Dharmendra Pradhan's removal

New Delhi: The Indian Youth Congress (IYC) has announced plans to intensify its nationwide agitation over alleged irregularities in competitive examinations and renewed its demand for the removal of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The youth wing of the Congress said it would launch a fresh phase of protests across several states, including torchlight marches, student outreach programmes, demonstrations and gheraos, alleging that repeated examination controversies have undermined students' faith in the education system.

According to an official statement, IYC president Uday Bhanu Chib will visit multiple states to lead the campaign, which is scheduled to cover Maharashtra, Telangana, Assam, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Punjab and Tamil Nadu, among others. The IYC alleged that students have faced repeated hardships due to paper leaks, examination-related irregularities and administrative lapses in various recruitment and entrance examinations.

It also raised concerns over reports of contracts being awarded to allegedly questionable entities involved in conducting examinations. "The students of this country deserve jobs, justice and accountability. Instead, they have been given paper leaks, uncertainty and a broken examination system," IYC in-charge Manish Sharma said in the statement. He said the organisation would continue its protests "until accountability is fixed and those responsible are removed".

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Chib accused the government of failing to address concerns raised by students and alleged that examination leaks and irregularities had adversely affected the future of young aspirants. "We are now intensifying this movement across the country. We will not stop until Prime Minister Narendra Modi is forced to sack Dharmendra Pradhan," he said. The IYC said the next phase of its campaign would include torchlight marches, "Halla Bol" marches, student interaction programmes, district-level mobilisation drives and protests outside the residences of BJP leaders and chief ministers.

The Union Education Ministry has previously maintained that measures have been taken to strengthen examination processes and improve transparency in recruitment and entrance tests. The latest announcement comes amid continuing political debate over the conduct of public examinations and recruitment tests, an issue that has triggered protests by opposition parties and student groups in recent years.