The 36-day students’ agitation scored a historic victory on Saturday, as Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned after weeks of sweeping protests that brought central Delhi to a standstill, revitalized a moribund opposition and heralded the entry of a new generation of young people into politics.
The sprawling sit-in at Delhi’s historic Jantar Mantar was called off hours after the minister announced resignation, with Kokruche Janta Party (CJP) leaders saying the government had accepted two more demands – compensation $1 crore to the next of kin of every student who died by suicide after irregularities in the National Eligibility Test for Admission, withdrawing all first information reports against the students who took out a massive march to Parliament earlier this week.
“We have won. Gandhi has won. Ambedkar has won,” CJP founder Abhijit Deepki said from a makeshift platform at Jantar Mantar as news poured into the heavily fortified site.
This is the first time that popular street protests have led to the resignation of a federal minister in the National Democratic Alliance government during his three terms. Union Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi has been given additional charge of the Education Ministry.
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Celebrations erupted soon after as young men and women – many of them from Generation Z – waved the tricolor, climbed barriers and broke into impromptu dances while makeshift speakers broadcast favorite Bollywood movies. Many briefly interrupted the celebrations to stand and sing loudly along with the national anthem and “Sari Jahan Se Asha”, before unfurling their banners and posters containing memes and slogans attacking the government.
“Our generation did it,” said Nachiket Malhotra, 22. “We showed them that we cannot be called terrorists, then you beat us and then release us.”
Pradhan — a senior Cabinet minister who has been part of the Cabinet since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 and the longest-serving education minister for nearly two decades — announced his dramatic resignation on X.
In his two-page note in Hindi, the minister said he was disturbed to see the events of the past 10 days and said he was determined not to let the youth get caught in the web of confusion.
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“Considering the situation in Jantar Mantar and across the country – with the aim of preventing anti-national forces from exploiting it, maintaining national unity, ensuring that the future of no Indian student is not tangled in legal complexities, and allowing our children to devote their time to studies and focus on building their careers – I have tendered my resignation to the Prime Minister,” he said.
“It’s not about individual status for me,” he added.
Rashtrapati Bhavan accepted his resignation even as senior ministers and BJP leaders rallied behind him. “His contribution to public service has been comprehensive, future-ready and aligned with the aspirations of a new India,” Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said on X programme.
Hours later, CJP representatives Ashutosh Ranka and Sourav Das met Union ministers JP Nadda and Jitendra Singh – for the third time in as many days – and later announced that the government had accepted all their demands. The CJP said the two sides will meet again in four weeks to discuss broader reforms to the exam system.
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“The CJP declares that we are withdrawing the agitation in good faith and realize that the agreed terms will be implemented within the agreed timeline,” Das said at a joint press conference with Nadda and Singh.
“Since the government has accepted all our demands after 36 days of protests, we appeal to everyone to peacefully withdraw from the protest sites and return to their homes,” Ranka said.
Das said they have shared the draft demands with the government and the government will give a written assurance by Tuesday. There was no news of demanding the government to apologize for the clashes that occurred on July 20.
Nadda said that CJP representatives came to the meeting with a written draft on the issues raised during the July 20 agitation. Delhi Police lodged at least 15 FIRs in connection with the protest when tens of thousands of youth broke barricades and braved tear gas shells and batons to march to Parliament.
Nadda said the government also discussed demands of no retaliatory action against agitators, compensation to families of NEET aspirants who died, and CJP’s five-point pact.
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“After discussion, the first point was that no action should be taken and FIRs should not be lodged. If any FIRs are indeed registered, whether by Delhi Police or in BJP-ruled states, they will be withdrawn,” Nadda said, adding that the government had agreed to provide “honorable compensation within rules” to the families of NEET suicide victims.
“The government has accepted all our demands,” Das said. Nadda said the government would submit to the CJP copies of the registered FIRs.
The announcements brought a dramatic conclusion to the sweeping protests that resulted from a controversial comment by India’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Suriya Kant describing the unemployed and those with questionable degrees earlier this year.
“I thank CJI Surya Kant ji for calling us cockroaches. If you had not called us cockroaches, I would not have returned to India. If you had not called us cockroaches, the youth would not have come out on the roads,” Debaki said amid cheers at Jantar Mantar.
The CJP first succeeded in amassing millions of followers on social media before launching an indefinite sit-in protest on June 20 to demand Pradhan’s resignation over repeated leaks of question papers – including one earlier this year. After days of listless crowds, the movement was galvanized by a hunger strike and the forced deportation of activist Sonam Wangchuk last week.
The crowds swelled over the weekend, and by Monday morning, queues of people — many of them students, first-time agitators and young professionals — braved persistent rain and police barricades to join what has become the largest street protests in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third term. More than 100 demonstrators and 129 security personnel were injured. One protester remains in the intensive care unit.
Over the past week, crowds have swelled and extended beyond the borders of Jantar Mantar as thousands of young people flocked to central Delhi, despite Delhi’s longest internet and metro station shutdowns, dozens of barricades that sparked traffic jams across the capital, and controversial police detention of knocking on protesters carrying posters or pepper spray. Tensions have flared intermittently at the site, most dramatically on Wednesday night when clashes between protesters and police left five agitators and five police officers injured.
As the storm of Gen Z protesters grew, government efforts to break the stalemate accelerated. Nadda and Singh persuaded Wangchuk to breakfast, Modi made a rare personal appeal to young people on Instagram and promised a tough new bill – which will be introduced in Parliament on Monday – to tackle paper leaks, and the National Testing Agency fired top officials. Police remain under heavy criticism over allegations of using excessive force to disperse crowds on July 20; The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Two appeals were filed on Monday, although four people claimed that security forces used pellet guns on them – an unprecedented event in the capital.
But on Saturday afternoon, as a stream of people — many of them school students, many first-time protesters who had never been outside a campus before, many who had traveled a night or more to be there — gathered at Jantar Mantar, the jubilation over their accomplishment washed away the bitterness. Nikita Joshi, 19, said: “Everyone thought we were lazy, that we didn’t know anything except Instagram or our phones. Today, our generation has raised its voice.”
