By Saurabh Sharma and Aftab Ahmed
NEW DELHI, July 25 (Reuters) - India's education minister resigned on Saturday, handing a major victory to youth protesters who had demanded he quit to take responsibility for examination paper leaks, and who erupted in celebration on news of his departure.
"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.
India's biggest street protests of recent years had
become a political flashpoint, posing one of the biggest challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as opposition politicians joined youngsters' calls to demand action and disrupted parliament.
"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," Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan wrote in his post.
"I deeply respect the aspirations, feelings, and legitimate expectations of the country's youth."
The minister announced his resignation on X just as police fired tear gas to scatter young protesters in New Delhi, hours before their leaders were set to hold another round of talks with ministers.
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.
CELEBRATIONS AT PROTEST SITE
Youngsters at the Jantar Mantar site shouted "Jai Hind", a patriotic slogan meaning "Victory to India", as the national anthem played on loud speakers and sweets were distributed among the crowd. At least 1,000 police officials stood nearby guarding the area, according to Reuters journalists at the site.
The leak of the high-profile medical college entrance test paper in May, which led to the cancellation of results and the government ordering a retest, affected 2 million young people.
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 also reflect anger over job scarcity, corruption and government accountability.
"Young generation is here. This is win for the constitution,” protester Tluanga Ralte said, walking with a copy of the Indian constitution at the protest site after the minister's resignation. "We are not a lazy generation."
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. M.J. 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.
(Reporting by Saurabh Sharma Bhawika Chhabra in New Delhi; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Susan Fenton)
