Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigns amid nationwide protests

The minister's resignation comes weeks after protests over the leaking of the question paper for the highly-competitive National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Neet-UG) for admissions to medical colle

In a stunning denouement to weeks of youth protests against the question paper leak of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Neet-UG) for aspiring doctors, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday tendered his resignation from the Council of Ministers via social media, while also sending his resignation letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

 

Pradhan's exit comes weeks after a public demonstration began at the national capital's designated protest site under the banner of the so-called Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), and mere days after images of a violent crackdown on protestors by the Delhi Police made it to millions of television and mobile screens, prompting a national outcry.

 

 

Following the minister's resignation, CJP's founding president Abhijeet Dipke told his followers at the protest site that "... this resignation is proof that if you people are not afraid, if you people do not bow down to this government, then we can take the resignation of anyone."

 

Pradhan's resignation now has to be first accepted by Prime Minister Modi, who will make a final recommendation to the President of India for her final assent.  

 

The education minister's exit is the first in this term of the Narendra Modi-led government, and only the second since it came to power in 2014. The only other time a Cabinet minister from the National Democratic Alliance government has resigned since 2014 was in 2018, when M J Akbar, then minister of state for External Affairs, was forced to put in his papers over allegations of sexual harassment when he had been a journalist.

 

In his letter to the PM, Pradhan, who has been associated with education reform for over four decades, said that his exit was not a matter of personal prestige but was meant to ensure that "no student's future gets entangled in legal complications" and that young people could focus on their studies rather than remain trapped in a "cycle of confusion." He thanked the PM for the opportunity to serve, and invoked the blessings of Lord Jagannath - Pradhan hails from the state of Odisha, home to the deity's eponymous temple in Puri - as he signed off.

 

The resignation follows a turbulent stretch that began when the question paper for the Neet-UG exam - held under the aegis of the National Testing Agency (NTA) - on May 3 was discovered to have been leaked, prompting the government to hand the probe to the CBI, cancel the exam, and announce a re-test on June 21. The leak also prompted the education ministry to switch to a computer-based testing starting 2027. The results for this year's exams, declared on July 16, were, in Pradhan's words, "satisfactory," with several meritorious students from poor backgrounds also clearing the exam. But he acknowledged that "people in positions of responsibility" had tried to mislead students during the process.

 

However, the CJP, which had been formed as a satirical response to a comment by the Chief Justice of India in an entirely different context, ran with the baton of the question paper leak, organising a month-long agitation at Delhi's Jantar Mantar, which escalated after a "Sansad Chalo" march to Parliament on July 20 turned violent. After the Delhi Police's action, the protests quickly spread beyond New Delhi, sparking nationwide demonstrations by students and youth, calling for action against police brutality along with the existing demands for education reforms and Pradhan's resignation.

 

Indeed, the CJP had made Pradhan's resignation its central demand, despite being in talks with the central government. Until as recently as Friday, CJP leaders maintained that the minister's exit was a "non-negotiable" condition for further talks to end the protests. Under the circumstance, Pradhan's continuation had simply become untenable, it would seem. The CJP has also demanded compensation of Rs 1 crore for families of NEET aspirants who have died by suicide since the exam's cancellation, withdrawal of FIRs against protesters, and a five-point charter of exam reforms.

 

Talks between the CJP and Union Ministers J P Nadda and Jitendra Singh through the past week failed to yield a breakthrough, even as activist Sonam Wangchuk ended a 26-day hunger strike undertaken in support of the protesters after the government assured him no action would be taken against students.

 

Pradhan's resignation, if accepted, leaves the government with CJP's other demands — compensation and legal relief for protesters — still under discussion. Meanwhile, the CJP has announced that the protest will continue until all their demands are met and assurances given in writing. CJP Chief Spokesperson Saurav Das said they have been called for a meeting with J P Nadda at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday for another round of discussions.