Crediting the students and the GenZ for Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's decision to step down from his position over irregularities in NEET (UG) examination, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday that this has provided an opportunity to India in rebuilding its education system that has been affected by constant paper leaks.
In a video on X, the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha said Pradhan's resignation has sent a signal to every section of the society, including the farmers and the labourers, that has been "attacked and oppressed" by the current government.
Gandhi, a Lok Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli, said this has also provided an opportunity to change the current regime in India, which he said is constantly attacking the country, destroying the Constitution and capturing all the institutions.
However, he said the government still needs to fulfil two of the protesting students' demands.
"The first one and most important one, anybody who has raised a finger on our students, beaten them, shot at them has to be held accountable," Rahul said. "People who've organised it, people who've implemented it, all have to be punished and the final demand that the Prime Minister of India, out of respect for the students of India, out of respect for the future of India, has to apologize to the students who were brutalised and attacked."
The protesters, led by Abhijeet Dipke's Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), put forth three demands in front of the government: Pradhan's resignation, no action against agitators and Rs 1 crore compensation for kin of NEET aspirants who died by suicide.
During the Friday's meeting with CJP representatives, the government agreed for the two other two demands but said it will inform about Pradhan's resignation later. But with calls for his resignation intensifying, Pradhan stepped down from his position, saying he was pained to see what was happened in the past 10 days.
Meanwhile, Rahul's sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has also welcomed Pradhan's resignation, saying the government was forced to bow down in front of the students. The Congress MP from Kerala's Wayanad also credited Rahul for the success of students' protests.
"The youth 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. I even got a bit emotional," she told reporters during her visit to Wayanad.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said Pradhan's resignation is a "victory of truth" and defeat of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "stubbornness". He also called it a victory of the united opposition, who had raised the voices of students in the Parliament.
"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," Kharge said on X. "Now it is Mr Modi's turn to apologise to our young generation and to take strict action against those who unleashed lathis, batons and pellet guns on them."
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