India Education Minister Resigns After Nationwide Protests

India's Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned on Saturday, July 25, 2026, following weeks of sustained nationwide protests demanding accountability for examination paper leaks that disrupted the futures of millions of students. The protests, which escalated from a call for education reform into a major political challenge, were called off by organizers after the government accepted their key demands, marking a significant concession by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration.

The immediate catalyst for the demonstrations was the cancellation of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), India's highly competitive undergraduate medical entrance exam, after its question papers were leaked. Approximately two million students took the exam on May 3, but it was later scrapped. Organizers linked more than a dozen student suicides to the exam's cancellation and subsequent stress. A retest was held in June.

The movement coalesced around a new group, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a satirical political party whose name references a judge's past comment comparing unemployed youth to cockroaches. Formed in mid-May, the group rapidly gained a massive social media...