India's education minister resigns after youth protests

• Dharmendra Pradhan says sent resignation to PM Modi.
• Adds doesn't want "anti-national" forces to take advantage
• Announcement erupts cheers among protesters.
  

NEW DELHI: Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Saturday he had resigned, handing a major victory to youth protesters nationwide who had demanded that he quit to take responsibility for examination paper leaks.

The minister announced his resignation on X just as police fired tear gas to scatter young protesters in the Indian capital, hours before their leaders were set to hold another round of talks with ministers to push for the move.

"Considering the situation that has arisen at Jantar Mantar and across the country, so that anti-national forces do not take advantage of this situation ... I have sent my resignation letter to the Prime Minister," Pradhan wrote in his post.

"I deeply respect the aspirations, feelings, and legitimate expectations of the country's youth."

"We have done it," said Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party that led the protests, to loud cheers at the Jantar Mantar protest site in New Delhi.

Cheers erupted among the thousands of protesters who have been rallying in central Delhi and elsewhere as the news spread.

Pradhan, 57, is a senior leader of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party and has been regarded as a rising figure, and even mentioned in the past as a potential BJP leader.

A minister since Modi first took office in 2014, he has held the petroleum and natural gas, steel, skill development and education portfolios, becoming education minister in 2021. His father was a veteran BJP leader and served as a junior federal minister between 1998 and 2004.

Pradhan's resignation is "a victory of peace, patience & perseverance," activist Sonam Wangchuk, who was on a hunger strike for 26 days to support the youngster's movement, wrote on X.

India's biggest street protests of recent years have become a political flashpoint, posing one of the biggest challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as politicians joined youngsters' calls to demand action.

Thousands of supporters of India's youth-led "cockroach" movement had been protesting since June, but anger boiled over since police on Monday injured dozens of students, launching baton charges and firing tear gas to deter crowds of protesters marching on parliament.

The protests, led largely by young people and triggered by discontent over leaks of question papers for high-stakes entrance exams, reflect anger over job scarcity, corruption and government accountability.

Federal authorities even on Saturday restricted access to the internet and to 18 metro stations to try to limit the protest in the capital, the latest day of such restrictions.

Pradhan is only the second minister to resign following a scandal since Modi came to power in 2014. MJ Akbar resigned as junior foreign minister in October 2018 to fight allegations of sexual harassment made by more than a dozen women during India's #MeToo movement.

Students, youth activists and opposition supporters had in recent days staged protests in ‌the states ⁠of West Bengal, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, holding placards demanding Pradhan's resignation and boycotting classes in some places.