Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has not said anything directly about the Kokruch Janta Party’s persistent demand for his resignation, especially since the protests widened following police actions during the Parliament march on July 20 called by the CJP.
Barring the attack on Rahul Gandhi and his protest outside the Prime Minister’s House, Pradhan mainly communicated by retweeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promises of examination system reforms to prevent paper leakage in the future.
State representatives meeting
His activity last week included showing that he held a meeting with fellow MPs from his home state of Odisha. This meeting came on July 22, and Pradhan posted on X a photo showing 15 MPs, including himself. The BJP has 20 Lok Sabha members from the eastern state where Pradhan was once seen as a potential prime minister, although he remains at the center as the party has chosen Mohan Charan Majhi in 2024.
The meeting with the MPs was held during the adjournment of the Parliament session due to the opposition’s demand for his dismissal, leaking of the NEET paper and discussing other issues by abandoning all other work. The Parliament session is still suspended because the government has not backed down yet.
In his meeting with MPs amid this, Pradhan said on Channel
Some comments on X’s post saw it as a “show of force.”
On the same day, Pradhan delivered a long speech at a closed-door meeting of education ministers from states and union territories. He did not mention the paper leaks in his speech, which lasted about 30 minutes. This was his first public appearance since protests intensified on Monday at Jantar Mantar and other places with a ‘Sansad Chalo’ rally. Pradhan X’s handle streamed the speech live. He spoke on matters such as the importance of indigenous languages, the National Education Policy and the National Curriculum Framework (NCF), and other policy issues.
The attack on Rahul is an “industrial confrontation”
A day before that, he had, albeit indirectly, published a post himself about the issues raised around the paper leaks – calling it an attack instead. He claimed that Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi was “shamelessly exploiting…students as political tools to manufacture unrest” during the monsoon session of Parliament.
He said that Rahul Gandhi and the Congress, along with other opposition parties, “chose to hold a dharna outside the residence of the honorable Prime Minister, causing inconvenience to the public and ignoring established security protocols.”
He added that the government expressed its willingness to hold a “comprehensive discussion.” He accused Congress of choosing “political spectacle over democratic debate.”
He claimed that Rahul Gandhi was “manufacturing confrontation” and asserted that “every real avenue of discussion has been opened”.
Read also | Dharmendra Pradhan’s old post with Sonam Wangchuk and his wife goes viral: ‘Appreciate their passion’
“Our government remains 100% committed to debating NEET and addressing all the real concerns of our youth on the House floor… We owe our students more than anger. We owe them answers, reforms and accountability. And that is exactly what our government remains committed to delivering,” he wrote.
This remains his only final communication on the issues raised in Jantar Mantar and Rahul Gandhi. Last month, when the APC protests were still in their infancy, he called the protesters “Team B terrorists” in a television interview.
On the day of the ‘Sansad Chalo’ rally organized by the CJP, he reshared PM Modi’s speech from the doors of Parliament where the Prime Minister apparently took a ‘not a 56-year-old’ dig at Rahul Gandhi. Later that day, Pradhan reshared two posts through his ministry’s official handle on the features of the National Education Policy (NEP). In between, he reportedly met Union Home Minister Amit Shah, but no details emerged about that.
On the eve of the CJP rally, on July 19, Pradhan met a senior NEET-UG that was reconvened. Panchul Bansal, the second seed, later spoke in interviews about how he used the time between the leaked and subsequently canceled May 3 exam and the re-exam in June to prepare more “instead of protesting”.
I republish the promises
Over the past two days, when PM Modi started communicating directly on the issue of paper leaks (without naming the CJP or others raising the demand), Pradhan re-shared his posts.
On July 23, Modi first published a text-only post. Pradhan re-shared, “Nothing is more important than the welfare and future of our youth! We have decided to set up fast-track courts to ensure speedy and strict punishment of those involved in leaking papers. We have directed the concerned authorities and officials to take all necessary steps in this regard. This continues our series of steps to protect the interests of students. Those who try to harm the future of our youth will not be spared.”
Modi made the same promise – plus that the BJP-led NDA government would introduce a law on the matter – in a selfie video that was noticed by many for its “Gen Z aesthetics” as well, just before midnight. Pradhan reposted it.
As of 5 pm on July 24, Pradhan’s other recent posts included exchanging good wishes on festivals and expressing condolences on the death of a prominent freedom fighter against the British Raj from his home state.
Two other members of the Modi government – Health Minister JP Nadda and External Affairs Minister (Prime Minister’s Office) Jitendra Singh – met RJD spokespersons Sourav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, who delivered a message that their demands remain non-negotiable.
It is learned that the government has sought time until Saturday afternoon to respond.
The son of a former Union minister, a long-time RSS-ABVP connection
Pradhan, 57, currently represents Odisha’s Sambalpur constituency in the Lok Sabha. Born to former Union minister Dipendra Pradhan, he earned a master’s degree in anthropology from Utkal University and began his political career as a student activist with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the BJP’s parent body RSS, in the early 1980s.
Having been a member of the Odisha Assembly and both houses of Parliament, his national profile rose when he served as Petroleum Minister from 2014 to 2021, and was transferred to the Education portfolio in 2021.
