3 weeks ago
Neha Bora takes mic, demands NTA scrapping, invokes Tagore, Khudiram
A big crowd of people came to a library in Kolkata, India, to hear a young woman speak.
Her name is Neha Bora, and she is 25 years old.
So many people came that the room was full, and others watched her on a big screen outside.
Neha talked about how government-run student exams were not being conducted well.
She said that some people were involved in leaking exam papers, and the agency in charge should be shut down.
She also said that the country's new education plan should be rolled back.
Neha told the crowd that people in power must be accountable to the public.
She spoke about schools that had closed in her state and said they should be reopened.
The event was on the same day that freedom fighter Khudiram Bose was executed long ago, and Neha remembered him.
Many people cheered for her, and she had to push through the crowd to reach her car.
Neha Bora, a 25-year-old AISA/CPI(ML) leader, drew an overflowing crowd at Rammohun Library in north Calcutta.
She demanded the scrapping of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the rollback of the National Education Policy (NEP), calling the NTA a "front" for the paper-leak business.
Bora said Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation was not enough and that structural reforms were needed to restore public accountability.
She alleged that more than 8,000 public schools have been shut in Bengal under the Trinamool government and blamed a section of the media for spreading hatred.
The speech coincided with the martyrdom anniversary of freedom fighter Khudiram Bose, who was hanged on August 11, 1908.
- Who
- Neha Bora, a 25-year-old student leader of AISA/CPI(ML), addressing a crowd that included activists, teachers, and trans people.
- What
- Delivered a speech at Rammohun Library demanding that the NTA be scrapped, the NEP be rolled back, and structural reforms in education be made.
- Where
- Rammohun Library, north Calcutta (Kolkata).
- When
- Tuesday, August 11, the martyrdom anniversary of Khudiram Bose.
- Why
- To call for accountability from public representatives and to protest education policies she said favour privatisation and centralisation.
Key facts
- Speaker
- Neha Bora, 25, of AISA/CPI(ML)
- Venue
- Rammohun Library, north Calcutta
- Date
- Tuesday, August 11 (Khudiram Bose martyrdom anniversary)
- Crowd response
- Hall overflowed; giant screen and extra chairs arranged outside
- Key demands
- Scrap the NTA and roll back the NEP
- Key allegation
- More than 8,000 public schools closed in Bengal under the Trinamool government (per activists)
- On the minister
- Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation not enough; structural reforms needed
Quotes
Neha Bora
25‑year‑old activist and speaker
“"When he says, ‘Where knowledge is free; where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls’, it means we must build a society where 8,000 public schools are not shut."”
telegraphindia.com











