{"id":17408,"date":"2026-07-26T03:43:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T22:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=17408"},"modified":"2026-07-26T03:43:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T22:43:45","slug":"indias-education-minister-resigns-after-massive-youth-led-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=17408","title":{"rendered":"India&#8217;s education minister resigns after massive youth-led protests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/ph\/st\/th\/1561785009517\/2026\/i\/17850100682651\/v1.5\/Indias-education-minister-resigns-after-massive-youth-led-protests.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Supporters of the youth-led political movement Cockroach Janta Party celebrate the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Photo by Divyakant Solanki\/EPA<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><span class=\"story_dl\">July 25 (UPI) &#8212;<\/span> India&#8217;s education minister resigned Saturday amid a scandal that led hundreds of thousands of young people and students to the streets in one of the country&#8217;s largest protests.<\/p>\n<p>Demonstrations began in New Delhi in early June, after it came to light that answers to one of the country&#8217;s most prestigious college-entrance exams, taken by millions of students, had been leaked.\n<\/p>\n<p>At least a dozen students died by suicide after the government announced they would have to retake the exam.<\/p>\n<p>The protests, organized by the youth-led Cockroach Janata Party, swelled to hundreds of thousands of people across the nation early this week, forcing the hand of Prime Minister <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/topic\/Narendra_Modi\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Narendra Modi\" class=\"tpstyle\">Narendra Modi<\/a>&#8216;s government.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is one of the most historic days for our country,&#8221; one protester, Rochelle Cope, told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/jul\/25\/dharmendra-pradhan-india-education-minister-resigns-cockroach-movement\" target=\"_blank\">The Guardian<\/a>. &#8220;For the first time in 12 years, someone from the government has been held accountable for wrongdoing. And it wasn&#8217;t political parties that did this &#8212; it was the people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, said in his resignation letter &#8220;the events of the past ten days have saddened me deeply.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;During this period, individuals holding responsible positions also tried to mislead many students and create obstacles, which caused me deep anguish,&#8221; he said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/dpradhanbjp\/status\/2080938216505667663\" target=\"_blank\">statement<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>Pressure began to grow this week after police brutally cracked down against protesters, using tear gas and batons to clear them out.<\/p>\n<p>Opposition leader <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/topic\/Rahul_Gandhi\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Rahul Gandhi\" class=\"tpstyle\">Rahul Gandhi<\/a> said he would raise the issue in India&#8217;s parliament, holding Home Minister Amit Shah &#8220;directly responsible for the violence inflicted.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He authorized the firing on our students, authorized the use of lethal weapons, and authorized the use of pellet guns against them,&#8221; Gandhi told the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/live\/c3v0wkkpeplt\" target=\"_blank\">BBC<\/a>. &#8220;That&#8217;s a fundamental issue.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Modi&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.presidentofindia.gov.in\/press_releases\/press-communique-35\" target=\"_blank\">government announced late Saturday<\/a> that the education ministry would be assigned to Pralhad Joshi, who&#8217;s already the minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution, as well as new and renewable energy.<\/p>\n<p>Following the education minister&#8217;s resignation, leaders for the protests instructed the crowd to disperse.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All our demands have been accepted, so we request the protesters to withdraw immediately and return home peacefully,&#8221; Saurav Das, a spokesperson for the Cockroach Janata, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/india-cockroaches-end-protest-after-education-minister-dharmendra-pradhan-resigns\/live-78108089\" target=\"_blank\">told reporters<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Supporters of the youth-led political movement Cockroach Janta Party celebrate the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Photo by Divyakant Solanki\/EPA July 25 (UPI) &#8212; India&#8217;s education minister resigned Saturday amid a scandal that led hundreds of thousands of young people and students to the streets in one of the country&#8217;s largest protests. Demonstrations began&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/sv\/ph\/og\/i\/1561785009517\/2026\/1\/17850100682651\/v1.5\/Indias-education-minister-resigns-after-massive-youth-led-protests.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}