Published Jul 22, 2026 | 5:17 PM ⚊ Updated Jul 22, 2026 | 5:17 PM
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Synopsis: Pradhan and his supporters are asking why he should be the fall guy when the decisions have been taken by other people. But there are also other factors at play.
Ironic as it would be, Dharmendra Pradhan, India’s Education Minister at the centre of the storm in the face of raging protests from students seeking his resignation, himself led a similar agitation in his home state, Odisha, back in the 1990s.
That was in 1997 when Pradhan was the national secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). There was a paper leak in Odisha and Pradhan led a protest comprising around 1500 members at the state secretariat.
The protest, like in New Delhi on Monday, was peaceful, but the police charged at the activists and beat them badly. Pradhan was among those injured.
Three decades later, the wheel has turned full circle with students across the country on a continuous protest demanding that he resign, taking moral responsibility for the leak of question papers.
But how is Pradhan holding on while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has the unchallenged authority and freedom to sack the former if he intends to?
According to informed sources, Pradhan, as also his backers in the party, have been arguing that it is unfair to make him the “fall guy” when he was not the decision maker in any matter. They argue that whatever happened reflects the perils of a fully centralised functioning.
“Officials are chosen by the PMO, and they are given the responsibility of choosing vendors and deciding on the logistics. In what way am I responsible for whatever happened?” seems to be Pradhan’s line of defence.
As is now known to many, all key decisions in important ministries in the Modi regime are mostly taken at the bureaucratic level, guided by the PMO, with the ministers just being the public face. Pradhan is, therefore, upset that he was being made the scapegoat for the “leaks” even as credit, when things go right, goes to someone else.
While the latest protests are over the NEET question paper leaks that necessitated the re-conduct of the medical entrance test, Pradhan faced heat even when a massive fiasco happened in the correction of answer sheets of the CBSE examination, affecting school students.
Those in the know of happenings in Delhi claim that the private agency chosen to scrutinise the OMR sheets of CBSE students was also picked elsewhere.
Dr Vineet Joshi, handpicked by the PMO, has been the Secretary of Higher Education since January 2025. Interestingly, his brother, Vivek Joshi, was appointed as one of the Election Commissioners when Gyanesh Kumar was made the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) in February 2025.
Dharmendra Pradhan is considered close to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, seen as the No 2 in the BJP hierarchy. He played an important role in the victory of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in 2022 as also in the more recent triumph in West Bengal.
Pradhan has been sulking for some time now after he was not considered for the Chief Ministership of Odisha when the BJP finally managed to dislodge Naveen Patnaik in 2024. At the NDA parliamentary meeting marking the commencement of the monsoon session, Narendra Modi described the paper leak as ‘ghor paap’ (grave sin). He also made sure to let his comments come into the public domain through a media briefing by parliamentary minister Kiren Rijiju. Was Modi trying to drop a hint to his cabinet colleague?
One view is that Pradhan might still hold his peace if he is eased out as part of a reshuffle because it would keep the door open for a reentry in future. On the contrary, if he is made to resign now, it could well be the beginning of the end of his political career.
The reshuffle of the Union Cabinet, expected in the first week of July, has not happened and is likely to be pushed to October, coinciding with the mid-term of Modi’s current tenure. That explains why the Modi government is now gasping for breath. Sacking Pradhan will mean Modi has capitulated to public pressure for the first time. Not showing him the exit means the fire lit by students will keep burning.
Also Read:
India’s students’ revolt has exposed BJP’s biggest political blind spot
‘We cannot let children lose their lives’: Support for students’ protest mount in Tamil Nadu
Manic Monday: When books clashed with police batons for a better India
(Edited by R Rajesh Kumar.)
