New Delhi: In a second video addressed to the youth amid continuing protests directed at his government, an upbeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday (July 24) night thanked them for the ‘response’ to his earlier message but again made no mention of the agitation that has carried on in Delhi or its central demands.Modi’s 40-second video message thanking young people comes even as the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), whose agitation demanding Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation has spawned a nationwide movement, rejected his message on Thursday as “eyewash”.Meanwhile, inventor-activist Sonam Wangchuk also issued a video statement on Friday night, rejecting criticism of him for ending his weeks-long hunger strike in the presence of two Union ministers and for not insisting on Pradhan’s resignation as a condition for breaking his fast.Modi thanks youth even as agitators deem his announcement ‘eyewash’“Thank you friends! I got an opportunity to meet you late at night yesterday. The manner in which you responded to the video I posted last night and provided positive suggestions—thanks to everybody. Your love will remain. Our relationship will continue to grow actively. Thank you, thank you friends,” Modi said late on Friday.Earlier, on Thursday night, he had in a similar video reiterated his decision to set up fast-track courts to prosecute those involved in leaking exam papers and said that his government does not feel contented by the fact that students who retook the NEET-UG in May after its second leak in three years are now feeling “joy” after passing it.That in turn Modi had said in his first public remarks on the protests demanding Pradhan’s resignation as well as his own government ever since they began in early June.The CJP, which has continued to demand Pradhan’s resignation as a step towards accountability for the leaks, dismissed the move to set up fast-track courts as “eyewash”.As in Thursday’s video, Modi on Friday did not mention the protests – which crescendoed with a massive march towards parliament on Monday that was pushed back by police action – or the protesters’ demand for Pradhan’s resignation.‘Apprehended violence, prioritised students’ safety over my causing Pradhan’s resignation’For his part Wangchuk rejected criticism against him for his move to end his fast only in the presence of Union health minister J.P. Nadda and minister of state for the prime minister’s office Jitendra Singh – the Modi government’s intermediaries with the protesters – late on Wednesday in addition to a few leaders from Ladakh.He said he wanted to end his hunger strike in the presence of CJP leaders as well as MPs from other parties, but that none of these persons were allowed into the Medanta Hospital in Gurugram where he was admitted after being forcibly removed from the Jantar Mantar protest site on July 18.Wangchuk said that after he succeeded in getting the government to relent to what he called a written assurance not to prosecute peaceful protesters at Jantar Mantar or those who participated in Monday’s march, he agreed to Nadda and Singh’s call for him to end his strike as he apprehended a “huge crackdown” and “violence” in Delhi.“From the videos I was able to see last night, it seemed something very big was going to take place in the Connaught Place area … and I repeatedly recalled what happened on September 24 in Ladakh …” he claimed, referring to the outbreak of deadly violence in Leh during protests demanding safeguards for the Union territory, including a hunger strike he was on at the time. The government subsequently detained Wangchuk under the draconian National Security Act for six months.“This is what I was thinking – I have to stop this now or there can be disaster in the country,” said Wangchuk.“I do not consider it very important to make this [Pradhan’s] resignation happen through me,” Wangchuk also said, adding that he believes it is only a matter of time until the minister steps down. “Instead of focusing on this [the resignation], I was more concerned with the students’ safety, so that they are not prosecuted, so that I could give them that cover.”The Ladakhi activist also decried his treatment at the Safdarjung and Medanta Hospitals and accused the Modi government of turning Delhi into “North Korea”. He said he is considering legally challenging the authorities’ move to restricting his movements and meetings at the institutes.Wangchuk had begun an indefinite hunger strike demanding Pradhan’s resignation among other things on June 28, ending it 25 days later in the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday. His fast helped rejuvenate the CJP’s agitation, which went on to transform into Monday’s march to parliament that became Delhi’s largest such protest in recent years.