Indore: It seems Dharmendra Pradhan had read the mood of Gen-Z much earlier and offered to resign as Education minister, possibly more than once. However, his party refused to agree – until July 25, when all demands of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led movement were accepted.
A day after the Lok Sabha MP from Odisha’s Sambalpur quit five years after taking charge of the Education ministry, BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya claimed that Pradhan wanted to resign on the first day of the student protests at Jantar Mantar.
“From the very first day of the movement, he told the party chief, ‘If you feel that I should resign, I would.’ The party chief refused. But when circumstances became such that the party decided he should resign, he did so in a split second,” Vijayvargiya said in Indore.
“This is the hallmark of a good party worker,” Vijayvargiya, a minister in the Madhya Pradesh government, noted.
Vijayvargiya said he had known Pradhan since their student politics days and that he deserves praise for honesty and dedication.
“I congratulate him for what he has done,” Vijayvargiya said, adding that Pradhan’s resignation has foiled the designs of “foreign forces” that wanted to destabilise India by spreading violence.
Second quit offer declined?
According to an India Today report, Pradhan had offered to step down a second time, on July 20, at a high-level meeting of senior ministers.
However, his offer was once again declined, as the leadership advised him to continue spearheading reforms in the education sector.
The report cited government sources in saying that the view within the party and government leadership was that a minister’s resignation is the easiest option.
“It is like walking away from responsibility. The Modi government believes in fixing problems rather than running away from them,” sources said.
What finally changed that stance was when the CJP threatened to call for another large-scale march, similar to the July 20 ‘Chalo Sansad’ protest, sources informed. The government, already worried about several students and youths being injured due to police action on July 20, didn’t want to take another chance. More so since security agencies had reportedly submitted reports warning that anti-national elements were attempting to exploit the unrest.
