After Jantar Mantar, what still needs fixing
Following the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan due to student protests, this analysis argues that structural issues in the Indian education system remain unaddressed. While access to higher education has increased, the quality and systemic integrity of the system continue to face significant challenges.
Why it matters
It highlights that political resignations are often superficial fixes for deep-seated systemic failures in public institutions.
On July 25, 2026, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan stepped down, fulfilling the central demand of a movement that began with a satirical Instagram page, a few thousand students, left-leaning student groups, and a septuagenarian on a hunger strike who ended up hospitalised. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which set up camp at Jantar Mantar in early June, may have drawn its name from a judge’s remark likening unemployed youth to cockroaches, but its impact was anything but trivial. It succeeded in forcing out a sitting Cabinet minister, a rare instance of a generation, too young to have voted him into office, compelling his exit. That achievement is real and worth stating plainly, before the familiar cynicism returns.
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