Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation goes further than previous reversals. It goes against the doctrine that Prime Minister Modi’s government has upheld throughout its nearly 12-year rule
Five years after farmers camping on Delhi’s borders forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi into the biggest political retreat of his tenure, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation on Saturday marks only the second time sustained street pressure — this time from Generation Z and others galvanized by the Cockroach Janta Party phenomenon — has seen Modi’s regime conspicuously reverse course. This is the first time that a minister has been appointed to his position.
The last such reversal came on November 19, 2021, when Prime Minister Modi announced the repeal of three controversial farm laws after farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, camped at Delhi border points for a year. These acts were off the books by early December, weeks before legislative elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
A previous, smaller reversal on the farmers’ issue also came in August 2015, when the government allowed the land acquisition law to be dropped after a Congress-led protest.
Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation goes further than these setbacks.
This decision comes after weeks of protests by the CPM and pressure from the Congress-led opposition, in violation of the principle that Prime Minister Modi’s government has upheld throughout its nearly 12-year rule. This is the first time that a Union minister has resigned while openly taking responsibility for the controversy over governance under Modi since 2014.
This principle has been made clear in Parliament since 2015, during the controversy over the alleged role of then External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in helping Lalit Modi, accused of IPL-related offences, obtain travel documents.
Rejecting opposition demands for her resignation, then Home Minister Rajnath Singh said: “This is not the United Progressive Alliance government, this is the NDA government, and it does not believe in the politics of scapegoating.” This position largely held through three terms. The resignation came in 2018, from the Minister of State, when MJ Akbar resigned amid the MeToo movement.
Shiromani Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s resignation from the cabinet in 2020 came in protest against the farm laws that were later repealed. This brings us back to the turmoil farmers experienced in 2020-21. Modi then said he had failed to make them understand the benefits of the laws.
Why were some protests successful and others not?
Before and between the farmers’ movement and the CJP protest, other movements failed to move the government.
The Shaheen Bagh sit-in against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act lasted for 101 days from December 2019 to March 2020 before the coronavirus lockdown ended it. The riots subsequently claimed more than 50 lives, and the CAA itself was never withdrawn. However, the CAA rules were not notified until four years later, in 2024.
The 2022 protests against the Agneepath military recruitment scheme, which witnessed violence in several states, also failed to force a reversal.
Political commentator and history professor Harjeshwar Pal Singh said what separates successful withdrawals from other protests is whose base is protesting. “Using the same rhetoric becomes considerably more difficult when discontent arises from one’s own social base,” Harjeshwar Pal told HT, describing the CJP protesters as “young, educated, largely North Indian Hindus” from the same demographic group that is the core of the BJP.
“This is different from the largely Muslim protesters at Shaheen Bagh, who the government could easily classify as ‘jihadists,’” he said. He also pointed out the use of the words “Khalistani” and “anti-national” to refer to farmers who were largely rural and/or Sikh, “but the decline came as the movement entered a broader demographic that could influence the electoral fate of the BJP.”
“The same qualities were not well suited to the CJP constituency, although supporters of the RSS-BJP ecosystem tried,” he added.
A moment of déjà vu
Earlier this week, there were tense moments in Haryana and Punjab as farmers sought to march to Delhi to press their own demands and stand in solidarity with the students. The authorities have stopped this for the time being. However, on Saturday morning, the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugrahan), one of the main organizers of the 2020-2021 protest from Punjab, announced that it would head to Jantar Mantar. Union farmer leaders have already come to extend support to the CJP in person but not in large groups yet.
Student activist Amin Amitog — who was on hunger strike during the CJP protest and was also part of the 2020-2021 farmers’ protest — pointed out the similarity in the turning points.
When on July 18 police were arresting Sonam Wangchuk, who was on a hunger strike at the CJP’s main stage, he and others from AISA were on a smaller stage nearby.
“I saw the police chasing Sonam Wangchuk away and my mind went to that moment when (UP farmer leader) Rakesh Tikait became emotional in front of the camera,” Amitog told lawyer and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on the latter’s YouTube channel earlier this week. He was referring to the development of events after violence at a tractor rally on Republic Day on January 26, 2021. Police cut off water and electricity to Ghazipur border camp, farmers started returning to their homes, and the UP administration issued an eviction ultimatum.
“It was Rakesh Tikait’s collapse – with tears in his eyes, as he told the camera that he would rather die than evacuate the site – that turned everything around. Within hours, the farmers were driving back to Ghazipur, By the next morning, thousands returned and protested.
The CJP movement had two such inflection points. Wangchuk was forcibly transferred from Jantar Mantar to Safdarjung Hospital on July 18; Two days later, on July 20, police used tear gas and batons on a PJD march toward Parliament. The crowds then grew, and protests were held in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chandigarh and other places.
Read also | ‘He faced tear gas, then tasted the joy of victory’: How protesters celebrated Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation
At the CJP party site in Jantar Mantar, several protesters were identified as children of parents who support the BJP.
“I am asking everyone here to sign my notebook,” Amit Chowker, 18, from Kota in Rajasthan, told an HT reporter on site after the minister resigned.
When asked why, he said: “When I was leaving, my parents said that the ‘protest is fake’ and that we will not get any support. I will go home and show the signatures of the people who stood with me here from July 20 onwards.”
What now?
The CJP said the resignation is not the end of its campaign.
Addressing his supporters after Pradhan’s announcement, Debki said two demands remained: not to file criminal cases against the protesters, and to compensate the families of students who died by suicide after the NEET paper leak. By the evening, the AKP announced that the government had accepted these demands, and that the protesters should now return home.
Prime Minister Modi, in Instagram videos, has already promised a tougher law against paper leaks.
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge described the minister’s resignation as a “victory for truth and a defeat for Prime Minister Modi’s arrogance.”
Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said in a statement: “Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation is a big step towards reshaping our education system… Our heartfelt congratulations to every young person and every student who took to the streets and stood firm to protect democracy, the Constitution and their future.”
He added: “For other sections of society – farmers, workers, the poor, and everyone who has been oppressed and crushed by this government – true courage lies in standing firm in a constitutional way for the dignity of the individual. It is time to remove this government.”
Arish Chhabra is an associate editor on the Hindustan Times online team, where he writes news reports and explanatory features, as well as overseeing the site’s coverage. His career spans nearly two decades across India’s most respected newsrooms in print, digital and broadcast. He has reported, written, and edited across formats—from breaking news and live election coverage, to analytical long-reads and cultural commentary—building a body of work that reflects editorial rigor and a deep curiosity about the community for which he writes. Areesh studied English Literature, Sociology and History along with Journalism at Punjab University in Chandigarh, and began his career in that city, eventually moving to Delhi. He is also the author of Little Big City: What Life is Like from Chandigarh, a collection of critical essays originally published as a weekly column in the Hindustan Times, which examines the culture and politics of a city that is much more than just its famous architecture – and in doing so, holds up a mirror to modern India. During his stints at BBC, The Indian Express, NDTV and Jagran New Media, he has worked across formats and languages; Mainly English, as well as Hindi and Punjabi. He was part of the crack team for the BBC Explainer project which was replicated around the world by the broadcaster. At Jagran, he developed editorial guides and trained journalists on integrity and quality content. He has also worked at the intersection of journalism and education. At the Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad, he developed a website to streamline academic research in management. At Bennett University’s Times School of Media in Noida, he taught students the craft of digital journalism: from newsgathering and writing to social media strategy and video storytelling. Having moved from small town to larger city to megalopolis for education and work, his intellectual passions lie at the intersection of society, politics, and popular culture—a perspective that guides his writing and worldview. When he’s not working, he’s constantly reading long-form journalism or watching cerebral content, sometimes both at the same time.Advertisement repeats more
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