CJP targets Punjab exam leak as CM Mann rejects resignation calls

A day after forcing Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation over the NEET-UG crisis, Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke made it clear the student-led movement is not winding down. Speaking to reporters on Sunday, he confirmed the next campaign would reach beyond Delhi — to a recruitment exam scandal bubbling up in Punjab.

"We will announce our future strategy soon," Dipke said. "It has only just ended yesterday; please give us a little time." Asked specifically about the alleged paper leak during Punjab's pharmacy officers' recruitment examination, he added: "We will address that too. We are currently planning for it."

The signal lands as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab battles fierce opposition calls to sack its education and health ministers over the same incident. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, addressing NEET qualifiers from government schools in Mohali's Zirakpur on Sunday, dismissed the demand and defended his record.

What we can verify

1. Punjab CM's defence Mann insisted no examination paper had leaked during AAP's four-and-a-half years in office. He framed the pharmacy officers' exam uproar as cheating, not a leak, and said all culprits involved had been arrested.

2. Pharmacy exam cheating investigation Police found candidates smuggled a hidden pen camera into the exam hall to photograph question papers. The images were transmitted via WhatsApp to a suspected mastermind based in Haryana, with answers relayed back. The Indian Express reports arrests have been made.

3. Recusal of culpability Punjab's medical education and research portfolio falls under the state Health Department, currently headed by Dr Balbir Singh, not the education minister. Harjot Singh Bains pressed this point in an Instagram post, while noting he joined the Jantar Mantar protest as the only sitting state education minister who visited the students on the ground without going on stage.

4. CJP's national roadmap Dipke said talks remain underway on cases registered against students who participated in the 34-day Jantar Mantar agitation. "No cases should be registered against any student," he told the reporters, even as the leadership prepares the next phase of mobilisation.

What remains unverified

• Specific dates, venues, or format of any CJP-led mobilisation in Punjab.
• Whether the movement will formally align with opposition parties demanding ministerial resignations in the state, or stay independent of party politics as it did in Delhi.
• The identity and current legal status of all accused in the Baba Farid University pharmacy officers' exam cheating case.

Cover image: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann addresses NEET qualifiers in Mohali. Source: The Indian Express