INDIA'S EDUCATION MINISTER DHARMENDRA PRADHAN RESIGNS AFTER MASS PROTESTS

Dharmendra Pradhan resigned as India's education minister on Saturday following weeks of nationwide protests over an examination paper leak that affected millions of students. Pradhan submitted his resignation letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, citing the situation at Jantar Mantar and across the country. The protests were organised by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), a newly formed youth political movement. One account described the resignation as the first time in 12 years of Bharatiya Janata Party rule that one of Modi's most loyal ministers had been forced to resign due to public pressure.

The examination leak scandal prompted the CJP to call for Pradhan's resignation from May onwards. One report stated that more than a dozen students took their own lives following the leak, whilst some protest leaders undertook lengthy hunger strikes. Demonstrations escalated significantly on Monday when hundreds of thousands of young people and students gathered in Delhi in what one account described as the largest youth-led protest in years. Police used teargas and baton charges against the gatherings, with one report recording hundreds injured during the dispersals.

Protesters welcomed Pradhan's resignation but indicated their campaigns would continue. The CJP and its supporters have demanded compensation for affected families and action against police officers involved in dispersing protests. Thousands of CJP supporters gathered in Delhi following the announcement, with one account reporting ecstatic cheers from tens of thousands who had been calling for government accountability.