Pradhan Quits as Education Minister, CJP Calls It Youth’s Victory

New Delhi: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned on Saturday. He said he was taking moral responsibility for the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak crisis. Pradhan announced his decision on X. He submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The announcement came hours before a scheduled third round of talks between the government and the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP).

In his post, Pradhan said the events of the past ten days had saddened him. He said the fight was never about personal prestige. He also cautioned against letting the Jantar Mantar protests be exploited by outside forces. At the protest site, students broke into chants. They waved CJP’s cockroach-emblem flags. Opposition leaders called it a major win. RJD MP Manoj Jha said it was the first setback for the Modi government, and credited it to the “resolve of our youths and students.”

The mood at Jantar Mantar had not always been this way. On July 20, the CJP’s “Chalo Sansad” march toward Parliament turned tense. Thousands of students pushed past barricades. Visuals circulated showing baton-wielding personnel moving in on protesters. Several students said they were beaten and detained. Delhi Police issued a public denial the same evening. The force said no lathi-charge had taken place. It said the protest was being “handled professionally.” It urged people not to fall for rumours. Several film and public figures, including Shabana Azmi, Sonu Sood, Anurag Kashyap, Prakash Raj, Huma Qureshi and Bhumi Pednekar, criticised the police action on social media.

Rajya Sabha MP and actor Kamal Haasan also condemned the police action. On X, he wrote that a system where “coaching replaces learning, anxiety replaces curiosity, and criminality replaces merit is rotten.” He said a nation fails its children when they are met with “barricades and batons instead of answers.” Haasan also appealed to activist Sonam Wangchuk to end his hunger strike, saying the country would need his voice in the days ahead.

Wangchuk had begun an indefinite hunger strike on June 28. He fasted in solidarity with the protesting students. Twenty days into the fast, his health declined. He was forcibly shifted to a hospital in Gurugram on court orders. From his hospital bed, he kept up the pressure. He said he would not break the fast without written assurances. He wanted a guarantee of no legal action against students who protested peacefully or joined the July 20 march.

On the night of July 23, Union Ministers J.P. Nadda and Jitendra Singh travelled to Medanta Hospital. Wangchuk ended his 26-day fast in their presence. He said he received written assurances from the government. These included no FIRs against peaceful protesters. The government also agreed to consider compensation for the families of NEET aspirants who died by suicide after the leak. It further committed to a parliamentary debate on exam reforms. Modi posted a video the same night. He pledged tougher anti-paper-leak legislation. He also wished Wangchuk a swift recovery.

Congress kept up its own pressure through the week. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge led opposition MPs in disrupting Parliament proceedings. He demanded Pradhan’s resignation on the floor of the House. Rahul Gandhi posted a sharply worded message on X. He told Modi not to insult students’ intelligence with a “pathetic midnight video.” He demanded Pradhan’s removal, punishment for those who beat students, and an apology from the government.

The agitation was not confined to Delhi. Bihar, the state at the centre of the original paper leak, saw its own student protests through the week. Students staged sit-ins in Patna and other districts. In one widely shared video, police used water cannons to disperse a crowd of protesters in Bihar. Some protesters responded by dancing to music playing nearby.

With Pradhan gone, attention now turns to the CJP’s remaining demands. These include the scrapping of the National Testing Agency, a shift to computer-based testing, and a stronger anti-paper-leak law. The government has said these issues will be taken up when Parliament’s monsoon session resumes.