Listen to this article:

New Delhi: Dharmendra Pradhan has become the first cabinet minister under the Narendra Modi government to resign under sustained public pressure and nationwide protests.

Pradhan’s resignation on Saturday (July 25) came just five days after the Delhi Police unleashed brute force on protesters who had responded to the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)’s Sansad Chalo march call on July 20. Instead of deterring protesters, crowds only swelled at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar in its aftermath, and quickly spread to other parts of the country. The chorus for Pradhan’s exit due to repeated exam paper leaks, and concerns about the lack of accountability under Prime Minister Modi, only grew louder. The opposition too kept up the pressure, both inside and outside parliament, taking to the streets and demanding Pradhan’s ouster.

Yet Pradhan’s resignation announcement, which he posted on X on Saturday afternoon, makes no mention of this nationwide outrage that forced his exit.

Pradhan sidestepped the immediate trigger that had brought the youth to the streets. While he wrote a page and a half on how he had devoted four decades to education and how the government had acted swiftly after the NEET-UG paper leak in May, he left out any mention of the slew of irregularities in competitive exams in the last two years alone. He also made no mention of the irregularities in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)’s online marking system that came to light in May after they were amplified by the work of teenagers that shed light on it.

Instead he claimed that his exit was so that “anti-national forces” don’t take advantage of the situation in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar and elsewhere in the country, national unity is maintained and children can focus on building their career.

‘Devoted four........

© The Wire