Neha Bora, president of the All India Students Association, said the CJP/NEET protest is a continuation of long-standing left-student struggles in India.
The demonstrations signal a broadening coalition between student activists and civil rights groups over the perceived erosion of accountability in the national examination system.
Bora, a PhD scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said the current unrest is the culmination of years of activism rather than a spontaneous event. She said the protests target the National Education Policy (NEP), frequent paper leaks, and systemic irregularities in examinations.
"We want a complete rollback of the NEP," Bora said.
Left-wing student organizations officially joined the protests on Saturday, July 18 [3]. The movement has centered on Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, where activists have used hunger strikes to draw attention to their demands. On July 20, Sonam Wangchuk said he had been on an indefinite fast for 21 days [1].
While larger groups of student organizations have joined the cause, reports indicate that three student activists are currently continuing the hunger strike at Jantar Mantar [2].
Bora said the CJP protest is not a spontaneous eruption but the culmination of years of student activism [4]. The protesters argue that the government's current education framework has compromised fairness for students across the country. The demonstrations follow reports of police action against activists, which further sparked student protests and drew criticism from opposition leaders [5].
“"We want a complete rollback of the NEP."”
The alignment of the All India Students Association with the CJP/NEET protests suggests that disparate grievances—ranging from specific exam leaks to broad policy critiques of the NEP—are merging into a unified student movement. By framing the current protests as a continuation of a historical struggle, activists are attempting to shift the narrative from a one-time administrative failure to a systemic critique of the Indian education system's governance.
