Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday described Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation as “a huge step towards rebuilding our education system”, while congratulating students across the country for sustaining protests over the alleged NEET paper leak.
Sharing a video on X, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said the resignation marked an important victory for students who had “stood firm to protect democracy, the Constitution, and their future”, adding that “the time has come to remove this government”.
“Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation is a huge step towards reshaping our education system. Well done to students across the country; we are proud of all of you. Heartiest congratulations to every young person, every student who took to the streets and stood firm to protect democracy, the Constitution, and their future,” he wrote.
He said Pradhan's resignation should encourage other sections of society to continue raising their voices through constitutional means. "For other sections of society—farmers, labourers, the poor, every person whom this government has suppressed and crushed—true courage lies in standing firm in a constitutional manner for one's dignity. The time has come to remove this government. Don't be afraid!,” Gandhi wrote.
Meanwhile, the Congress on Saturday called Pradhan's resignation a victory for the students who maintained sustained pressure, but said this was not the end as the Prime Minister is yet to apologise to the students.
The Opposition party called it a victory for a generation tired of struggling in an “unfair and corrupt” system, and for an Opposition that demonstrated rock solid unity and solidarity with the students.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said Pradhan's resignation was a “victory of truth” and a defeat of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's “stubbornness”. He also said it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi's turn to apologise and take strict action against all those who used lathis, batons and pellet guns against the agitating students.
In his first reaction after Pradhan resigned, Kharge said, “The echo of India's students has finally reached the doors of the arrogant power. This is the victory of our millions of youth who raised their voices on the streets across the country to fix the education system... This is the victory of truth and the defeat of Mr Modi's stubbornness,” he said.
Kharge also termed it a victory for families who lost “their blood, their children because of the government's corruption”. "This is the victory of the united Opposition, who raised their voices from Parliament to the streets in the interest of the students.
Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi also welcomed the resignation of Pradhan, saying the government had been “forced to bend” before the youth and students of India. Vadra termed the development a victory for the country's youth and students, “who did not bend”.
“Force was used against them. Pellet guns, water cannons and tear gas were used against them. But the youth and the students did not bend; the government had to bend. It is a victory for the youth and students of India. I was really and truly happy when I heard the news,” she told reporters in Wayanad, following reports of Pradhan’s resignation.
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