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India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced his resignation on Saturday after weeks of mass youth-led protests over alleged exam paper leaks and irregularities in the education system.
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“I am pained to see the events of the past 10 days. This is not a matter of personal prestige for me,” Pradhan said in a statement posted on social media platform X.
“I have sent my resignation letter to the prime minister,” Pradhan said in his letter in Hindi.
The social media-driven Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leading the protests said after Pradhan’s resignation that all their demands had been met in another round of talks and that they were calling off the protests that were centred on the Jantar Mantar demonstration site in central New Delhi.
“We urge everyone to peacefully withdraw from protest sites,” Ashutosh Ranka, spokesperson of the CJP, which launched the protest movement, said at a news briefing in New Delhi.
The “Cockroach'” movement began more than a month ago after allegations of leaks in some of India’s biggest entrance exams. It started as a call for education reforms but grew into a broader protest over unemployment, government accountability and economic opportunities. Students, professionals, families and activists joined rallies in New Delhi and other cities across India.
Pradhan’s resignation marks the first significant concession by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to one of the most visible waves of public dissent it has faced in recent years.
The government has rarely yielded to sustained public pressure during Modi’s more than 12 years in office. The most notable exception came in 2021, when it was forced to withdraw controversial farm laws after a yearlong farmers’ protest.
News of Pradhan’s resignation sparked celebrations among the thousands of protesters who have camped at New Delhi’s protest site for more than a month. Many embraced each other and waved the Indian flag.
Tensions escalated on Monday when police moved to disperse thousands of protesters marching toward Parliament. Several students were injured in the crackdown, intensifying anger among demonstrators.
Modi’s government had earlier sought to ease tensions by announcing fast-track courts for cases involving exam paper leaks and saying it would introduce legislation to strengthen measures against cheating and corruption in the examination system.
The measures failed to satisfy protesters, who said they did not address government accountability. Opposition parties, which rallied behind the protests, said Pradhan’s resignation showed the government had bowed to sustained public pressure.
Additional sources • AP, AFP
