Dharmendra Pradhan resigns as Union Education Minister after weeks of massive uproar
Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan Resigns Amid Massive Protests Over NEET Paper Leak. Dharmendra Pradhan resigns as union education minister amid massive uproar
India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has announced his resignation on Saturday (25 July) following weeks of youth protests over a series of examination paper leaks. “I have sent my resignation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan said on Saturday. For Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation to take effect, it must first be accepted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and subsequently by President Droupadi Murmu.
Dharmendra Pradhan also acknowledged irregularities in the NEET-UG examination conducted on May 3, adding that he never shied away from responsibility in the situation. “My resolve was that no deserving student should suffer because of examination mafias and no student should face injustice," he said.
"However, irregularities were found in the NEET-UG examination held on May 3, 2026. The Government of India immediately took cognisance of the matter, handed over the investigation to the CBI, cancelled the examination, and announced a date for the re-examination. Along with this, it was decided that from next year onwards, the examination would be conducted in Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode," he said.
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Pradhan Confirms Resignation Letter Sent to PM Modi
The outgoing minister Dharmendra Pradhan disclosed the move on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), saying he had written directly to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "I have sent my resignation to the Honorable Prime Minister," Pradhan said, framing the decision as one made in the interest of students rather than under duress.
Quick answers to key questions
Dharmendra Pradhan resigned following weeks of protests by students demanding accountability over examination paper leaks, particularly concerning the NEET-UG exam.
He cited worries that the ongoing protests could entangle students in legal issues, urging them to focus on their studies and careers instead.
The Cockroach Janata Party led prolonged protests demanding Pradhan's resignation as a non-negotiable condition for accountability regarding the examination paper leaks.
Pradhan's resignation was framed as a move to protect students from future legal complexities, indicating efforts to ensure examinations are conducted with integrity.
Pradhan warned that the unrest could be exploited by anti-national forces and emphasized the importance of maintaining national unity and focus on education.
Dharmendra Pradhan's statement arrived at a combustible moment. Delhi Police reportedly used tear gas on Saturday to disperse young demonstrators gathered in the capital, just hours before protest leaders were due to sit down again with government ministers to press their central demand: Pradhan's exit.
Dharmendra Pradhan Cites Fear of Political Exploitation by "Anti-National Forces"
Dharmendra Pradhan said his primary concern was shielding students from being drawn into a protracted legal and political tussle. "The future of even a single student in India does not get entangled in legal complexities, and that our children invest their time in studying and focus on building their careers—considering all of this, I have sent my resignation to the Honorable Prime Minister," he said.
He went further, warning that continued unrest risked being hijacked by actors working against national interest, urging young Indians to keep their attention on their studies and careers rather than on the standoff in the capital.
Cockroach Janata Party's Month-Long Sit-In at Delhi's Jantar Mantar
The pressure campaign was led by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), the youth outfit fronted by Abhijeet Dipke, which had camped at Delhi's Jantar Mantar for more than a month demanding accountability over the paper leak scandal. Pradhan's resignation was the group's non-negotiable condition, and talks with the Centre had repeatedly stalled on precisely that point.
A day before the resignation, CJP spokespersons held discussions with Union ministers JP Nadda and Jitendra Singh, though those talks failed to produce a breakthrough. The protests were also shadowed by a hunger strike from Ladakh-based educationist and activist Sonam Wangchuk, whose presence at the demonstration site had added weight to the students' cause.
The NEET-UG paper leak controversy dogged Dharmendra Pradhan's tenure.
The Sambalpur MP emphasised that the government's priority was to ensure that the interests of over two million students were protected during the re-examination process.
"During this period, our primary concern was to ensure that the examination for more than two million students was conducted smoothly... From the very first day, I took responsibility for the situation and never turned away from it. My resolve was that we would not allow the prospects of any meritorious student to be harmed because of the examination controversy," Pradhan said.
About the Author
Sayantani Biswas is an assistant editor at Livemint with seven years of experience covering geopolitics, foreign policy, international relations and global power dynamics. She reports on Indian and international politics, including elections worldwide, and specialises in historically grounded analysis of contemporary conflicts and state decisions. She joined Mint in 2021, after covering politics at publications including The Telegraph. <br> She holds an MPhil in Comparative Literature from Jadavpur University (2019), with a specialisation in postcolonial Latin American literature. Her research examined economic nationalism through Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America. She also writes on political language, cultural memory and the long shadows of conflict. <br> Biswas grew up in Durgapur, an industrial town in West Bengal shaped by migration, which drew families from across India to the Durgapur Steel Plant. As the only child in a joint family, she spent years listening—almost obsessively—to her grandparents’ testimonies of struggle, fear and loss as they fled Bangladesh during the Partition of 1947. This formative exposure to lived historical memory later converged with her training in Comparative Literature, equipping her to analyse socio-economic structures and their reverberations. <br> Outside the newsroom, she gravitates towards cultural history and critical theory, returning often to texts such as Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. As a journalist, she is committed to accuracy, intellectual rigour and fairness, and believes political reporting demands not only clarity and speed, but historical depth, contextual precision, and a disciplined resistance to spectacle.
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