India’s education minister resigned on Saturday after days of nationwide protests calling on him to step down over alleged exam paper leaks and irregularities in the country’s education system.
In a post on US social media platform X, Dharmendra Pradhan said the events of the past 10 days had saddened him, and this is “not a matter of personal prestige for me.”
“The unity of the nation must remain intact. Not a single student’s future in India should become entangled in legal complications. Our children should devote their time to studies and focus on building their careers,” he said. “Keeping all these considerations in mind, I have sent my resignation to the Honorable Prime Minister.”
The protests are being led by the newly founded Cockroach Janta Party, a popular movement that emerged in response to controversial comments made by the country’s chief justice, who likened unemployed youth to cockroaches.
This week in the capital New Delhi, police used tear gas and batons to disperse marchers trying to reach parliament.
Celebration erupted at the Jantar Mantar protest site in the capital after the resignation.
‘Victory of millions of youth’
Chief of India’s main opposition Congress party, Mallikarjun Kharge, described it as a “victory of our millions of youth who raised their voices on the streets across the country to fix the education system.”
“India’s ‘Students’ echo’ has finally reached the threshold of arrogant power,” Kharge wrote on X.
He said it is now Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “turn to apologize to our young generation and to take strict action against those who unleashed lathis, batons, and pellet guns on them.”
The Cockroach party also said that two more of its demands are still pending: compensation worth 10 million rupees ($104,000) for families of the children who committed suicide, as well as action against police personnel for their heavy-handedness.
At least 11 aspirants are said to have committed suicide in India after the government voided the results of entrance exams following the leaks.
