For more than a decade of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule, cabinet resignations have been rare. Only one minister had previously stepped down, over allegations of sexual misconduct.
That changed on Saturday when Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned after more than a week of nationwide protests led largely by young Indians angered by a scandal over the country’s biggest medical entrance examination.
For many in Generation Z, his departure was more than a political victory. It was proof that sustained street protests could force change in a government widely viewed as resistant to public pressure.
“For the first time, it felt like we can make things happen through protests,” said Sakhi, a 22-year-old student activist in New Delhi.
The resignation quickly became a rallying point online, where users circulated an old video of a senior Modi minister declaring that “resignations do not happen in our government,” reinforcing the movement’s belief that it had achieved what many once thought impossible.
Sakhi said she grew up studying the importance of dissent in a democracy but rarely saw it reflected during the Modi years.
“I did not see that around me in the Modi years,” she said.
On Instagram, she documented police beatings and detentions while also posting satirical videos mocking officers stationed near protesters. Several posts drew millions of views.
“The government has a hold on mainstream media, Facebook and WhatsApp. But it missed Instagram,” she said.
The protests began in May after authorities canceled the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), India’s medical school entrance examination, following a leak of question papers. Nearly two million students were forced to retake the exam. More than 20 students later died by suicide, according to campaigners, who blamed the scandal.
Much of the outrage was organized by the satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), an online movement formed after India’s chief justice compared unemployed people holding “fake and bogus degrees” to cockroaches. Protest organizers demanded Pradhan’s resignation, reforms to the education system and compensation for affected families.
The demonstrations initially attracted little attention.
That changed on July 18, when police forcibly removed educator Sonam Wangchuk, who had been on a hunger strike, and took him to a hospital.
Two days later, tens of thousands marched toward Parliament after the CJP called for nationwide demonstrations. Police responded with baton charges, tear gas and pellet guns. Videos of the crackdown spread rapidly across social media, fueling wider participation instead of suppressing the movement.
The protests also tapped into broader frustrations among young Indians over education and employment.
Somaya Korde, 26, was detained at home after encouraging people online to attend a July 20 protest in Mumbai. She later joined several demonstrations.
Pradhan’s resignation, she said, “is not the end, but just the beginning.”
“For this generation, this is the first time many of us have stepped out to protest. But there are larger issues to talk about, and we will talk about them,” she said.
Korde, the first woman in her family to earn a law degree, said she believed education offered a path to a better future until the examination scandal undermined that faith.
“Schools and colleges are being privatised, paper leaks are happening, even if you finish education, there are not enough jobs. In a democracy, all this raises questions of accountability against the government,” she said.
Her concerns mirror wider economic challenges.
India has the world’s largest youth population, but unemployment among people aged 15 to 29 rose to 16.2% in June from 13.8% a year earlier, according to government data.
A 2026 study by Azim Premji University found that fewer than 7% of job seekers secured permanent salaried employment within a year, while fewer than 4% obtained white-collar jobs.
Among those galvanized by the demonstrations was Harshvardhan Kadam, 18, who took a part-time job selling laptops after his father’s death to help support his family.
A video he recorded during a protest in Mumbai on July 23, showing a police officer threatening to implicate him in a fabricated drug case while detaining him, was viewed 10 million times on Instagram. The officer was later suspended.
“I did not wish him to be suspended,” Kadam said. “I just wanted to document how the police were treating me for participating in a peaceful protest.”
Reflecting on the minister’s resignation, he added: “This is just the start. This shows that next time the government will be scared when we raise our voices.”
For Swaraj Priyo, a 29-year-old screenwriter from Guwahati, years of demonstrating during the Modi era had produced little visible change.
“This movement has brought back space for question and dissent and the reality check that all is not over,” he said.
The sense that the government had been forced onto the defensive is visible at protest sites across India, where posters now read: “Pradhan was just an example. It’s Modi’s turn next.”
But alongside the optimism is concern that authorities could retaliate.
Varuni Poorva, a 30-year-old student activist from Patna, said the resignation showed the government could be “brought to its knees.”
Still, she fears a “witch hunt” despite official assurances that protesters would not face reprisals.
She has sought anticipatory bail amid concerns she could be arrested. Police have charged more than 100 protesters with offenses including attempted murder and arrested more than 40.
Human Rights Watch has said Indian authorities under Modi have “routinely prosecuted activists, journalists, and peaceful protesters on fabricated counterterrorism and hate speech laws.”
Despite those fears, Poorva believes the protests have fundamentally changed a generation’s willingness to challenge authority.
With many of the grievances that drove the demonstrations unresolved, she said, it would be difficult for the government to return to “business as usual.”
The message has also appeared on walls near protest sites in New Delhi.
“We do not have jobs,” one piece of graffiti reads. “If you wipe this out, we will come back tomorrow.”
By Mohd Hassan, edited by Faustine Ngila (Impact Newswire).
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Mohd Hassan has extensive experience in news gathering, editing, and writing for the newswire industry, Contact – Info@impactnews-wire.com
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