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India's Education Minister Resigns After Weeks of Nationwide 'Cockroach' Youth-Led Protests Over Exam Leaks

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NEW DELHI — India's education minister resigned Saturday, handing a significant victory to a youth-led protest movement that had spent more than a month demanding accountability over allegations that entrance exams to the country's most competitive medical schools were leaked and sold.

Dharmendra Pradhan announced his resignation following talks with organizers of the Cockroach Janta Party, or CJP, a youth movement that emerged in May and quickly grew into one of the most significant challenges Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has faced in recent years. The party called off its nationwide protests immediately after the announcement, saying the government had agreed to its core demands.

A scandal that disrupted millions of students

The controversy at the center of the protests traces back to May, when leaked questions disrupted the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, commonly known as NEET, India's fiercely competitive undergraduate gateway exam for medical schools. The leak forced authorities to cancel results and schedule a retest, affecting more than two million students nationwide. For many families, the scandal represented not just a logistical setback but a symbol of deeper dysfunction in a system where a single test can determine a young person's entire career trajectory.

According to Indian media reports, several students died by suicide after learning their exam results would be scrapped, a detail that transformed public anger over the leak into a broader movement demanding systemic reform and accountability from government officials.

From online joke to national........

© International Business Times