- Dharmendra Pradhan says he has sent his resignation to Prime Minister Modi.
- Addes does not want “anti-national” forces to take advantage
- The announcement sparks cheers from protesters.
NEW DELHI: Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Saturday he had resigned, delivering a major victory to young protesters across the country who had demanded he resign to take responsibility for exam leaks.
The minister announced his resignation on Day
“Considering the situation that has arisen at Jantar Mantar and across the country, so that anti-national forces do not take advantage of this situation… I have sent my resignation letter to the Prime Minister,” Pradhan wrote in his post.
“I deeply respect the aspirations, feelings and legitimate expectations of the country’s youth.”
“We have done it,” said Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Janta Cockroach Party that led the protests, to loud applause at the Jantar Mantar protest site in New Delhi.
As the news spread, cheers broke out among the thousands of protesters who had demonstrated in central Delhi and elsewhere.
Pradhan, 57, is a senior leader of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and has been considered a rising figure, and even mentioned in the past as a potential BJP leader.
A minister since Modi first took office in 2014, he held the portfolios of oil and natural gas, steel, skill development and education, and became education minister in 2021. His father was a veteran BJP leader and served as a junior federal minister between 1998 and 2004.
Pradhan’s resignation is “a victory of peace, patience and perseverance,” wrote activist Sonam Wangchuk, who went on hunger strike for 26 days to support the young man’s movement, in X.
India’s biggest street protests in recent years have become a point of political tension and pose one of the biggest challenges for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as politicians join calls from young people for action.
Thousands of supporters of India’s youth-led “cockroach” movement had been protesting since June, but anger has boiled over since police injured dozens of students on Monday, launching baton charges and firing tear gas to deter crowds of protesters marching on parliament.
The protests, led largely by youth and sparked by discontent over the leak of questionnaires for high-stakes entrance exams, reflect anger over job shortages, corruption and government accountability.
Federal authorities even restricted Internet access and 18 subway stations on Saturday to try to limit protests in the capital, the last day of this type of restrictions.
Pradhan is only the second minister to resign following a scandal since Modi came to power in 2014. MJ Akbar resigned as foreign minister in October 2018 to fight sexual harassment allegations made by more than a dozen women during India’s #MeToo movement.
Students, youth activists and opposition supporters had in recent days organized protests in the states of West Bengal, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, holding banners demanding Pradhan’s resignation and boycotting classes in some places.
