NEW DELHI: Three All India Students' Association (AISA) activists on Monday ended their 23-day indefinite hunger strike at Jantar Mantar following an appeal from a delegation of opposition legislators, civil society members and eminent personalities, who urged them to continue the movement through Parliament and public campaigns.
AISA activists Neha, Manish and Aameen, who had been on a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar, ended their fast amid rain lashing the city.
The delegation comprised Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha, CPI(M) MP Amra Ram, CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Rajaram Singh, social activist Yogendra Yadav, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, academic Atul Sood and actors Prakash Raj and Shabana Azmi.
Appealing to the students to end the fast, Yogendra Yadav said, "This is not the breaking of the hunger strike, but the conclusion of this form of struggle."
Manoj Jha said the students had achieved "something massive" by exposing the government "on all fronts".
Shabana Azmi said, "We have failed as a generation to do good to our Gen Z, but you people have shown us the way forward."
Rajaram Singh told the students that "your struggle will also roar in the House of Democracy from today onwards. You have shown the entire Opposition the way to fight."
According to AISA, the three activists had each lost more than 12 per cent of their body mass during the 23-day fast and continued despite dangerously low blood sugar levels and serious health complications.
The student organisation said it would now launch a month-long nationwide campaign against Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the National Testing Agency and the National Education Policy 2020 alongside the Monsoon Session of Parliament, while continuing its demand for accountability over alleged irregularities in competitive examinations.
The AISA activists had been on an indefinite hunger strike since June 28 as part of the broader agitation at Jantar Mantar demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, a judicial probe into the alleged examination irregularities and wider reforms in the education system.