Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who resigned after weeks of nationwide youth protests over the country’s paper leak scandal, once led a student movement against leaked examination papers nearly three decades ago.

Pradhan stepped down after a 36-day protest led by the social media-driven Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which emerged as one of the largest Gen Z-led movements in India’s history. The resignation is widely seen as the movement’s biggest victory, as the minister’s removal was its central demand.

The protests began on June 5 at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar and quickly spread across the country after allegations of widespread irregularities in examinations, including the leak of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper in May 2026.

Students held Pradhan directly responsible for the crisis, accusing his ministry of failing to safeguard the integrity of the country’s examination system.

Following sustained public pressure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government accepted the protesters’ demands on July 25, with Pradhan resigning from office after serving as education minister since July 2021.

His resignation marks the first time in Modi’s 12 years in power that a senior cabinet minister has stepped down under sustained public pressure.

A career shaped by student activism

Pradhan’s political journey presents a striking irony.

While studying anthropology, he became active in student politics through the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

According to The Indian Express, Pradhan served as ABVP’s general secretary in Odisha in 1997 when examination papers for higher secondary students were leaked. He led protests against the state government and was reportedly injured during a police crackdown on demonstrators.

His role in that movement has fuelled criticism of his response to the recent protests, during which he described the Cockroach Janta Party’s campaign as an “anti-national movement.”

In his resignation letter, Pradhan wrote: “I deeply respect the emotions and expectations of the youth. I am saddened by the events of the past few days. I do not want anti-national elements to exploit the situation in Delhi and other parts of the country, so I have submitted my resignation to the prime minister.”

Rise through BJP ranks

Pradhan has been one of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) most influential leaders and among the few ministers to remain in the federal cabinet continuously since Modi first took office in 2014.

Before taking charge of the education ministry, he served for nearly seven years in key portfolios, including petroleum.

Opposition parties have often accused Pradhan of benefiting from political lineage because his father, Debendra Pradhan, was a senior BJP leader and former federal minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government.

However, Indian media reports say Pradhan became associated with the RSS during his school years and later built his own political career through the organisation’s student network.

After student politics, he was elected to the Odisha assembly before entering the Lok Sabha in 2004. He later served in the Rajya Sabha, representing Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

Within the BJP, he is regarded as a skilled organiser and is widely credited with strengthening the party’s presence in Odisha and eastern India. Political observers had expected him to become Odisha’s chief minister after the BJP formed its first government in the state in 2024, but the party leadership retained him in the federal cabinet instead.

Controversial education reforms

Pradhan’s five-year tenure as education minister was also marked by controversy over the government’s education policies. Opposition parties accused him of reshaping school curricula in line with the RSS’s Hindutva ideology, alleging that content relating to the Mughal period, the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi and other secular themes was removed or altered.

Pradhan has publicly acknowledged the role of Vidya Bharati, an RSS-affiliated educational organisation, in developing the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

Critics have also alleged that individuals aligned with the RSS or Hindutva ideology were appointed to leading universities, educational institutions and the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the NEET examination.

According to analysts, the Modi government’s prolonged defence of Pradhan reflected not only support for an individual minister but also an effort to shield its broader education policies from scrutiny.

His resignation is therefore being viewed as a significant political setback for the government, with questions likely to persist over the future direction of India’s education system and examination reforms.