Dharmendra Pradhan was not offered another Cabinet portfolio after resigning as Union education minister, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said on Tuesday, dismissing media reports claiming otherwise as “completely fictional” and “unfounded”.
Addressing a press conference, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra rejected speculation that the Centre had proposed a different ministry to Pradhan as part of discussions following his resignation.
“There is no basis to these reports. They are completely fictional and unfounded,” Patra said.
The clarification comes days after President Droupadi Murmu accepted Pradhan’s resignation on the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Following his exit, Union minister Pralhad Joshi was assigned additional charge of the Education Ministry.
Pradhan’s resignation came after weeks of nationwide protests over the alleged NEET paper leak controversy. His removal had been the principal demand of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), which has been staging protests at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar for over a month. Talks between the Centre and the CJP had reportedly remained deadlocked over the demand for his resignation.
In a statement shared on social media after stepping down, Pradhan said he had devoted more than four decades to students, teachers and education reforms and thanked Prime Minister Modi for giving him the opportunity to serve as education minister.
“The developments of the last 10 days have saddened me. This is not a matter of personal prestige for me. India’s youth power is the true strength of this country,” he wrote.
Explaining his decision, Pradhan said he resigned to ensure that the ongoing agitation did not affect students or become a tool for “anti-national forces.”
“Considering the situation that has emerged at Jantar Mantar and across the country, and keeping in mind that anti-national forces should not take advantage of it, that the unity of the country remains intact, that the future of even a single Indian student is not entangled in legal complications, and that our children focus their time on studies and building their careers, I have sent my resignation to the Honourable Prime Minister,” he said.
Several media reports had claimed that Pradhan was offered another Cabinet berth after stepping down but had declined the proposal. The BJP has now categorically denied those claims, insisting that no such offer was ever made.
The party also urged against what it described as “baseless speculation” over Cabinet deliberations, reiterating that the government’s priority remains strengthening the country’s education system and restoring the credibility of public examinations.
Alongside the leadership change, the Centre has announced a series of measures aimed at overhauling India’s examination system. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently constituted a high-powered task force headed by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani to recommend technology-driven reforms for making public examinations more secure, transparent and tamper-proof.
The panel has been tasked with improving cybersecurity, strengthening governance of examination agencies, enhancing identity verification and data protection, and developing systems to detect and prevent question paper leaks.
The government has also proposed amendments to the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, seeking stricter punishment for organised exam fraud and expanded powers for investigators to crack down on paper leak syndicates.