Dharmendra Pradhan’s exit affirms the young have been heard, larger listening needs to begin

This moment demands generosity and open-mindedness from the powerful — when the young speak, it cannot afford to turn a deaf ear or resort to an older playbook of criminalising dissent. Written by: Editorial 4 min readJul 25, 2026 07:00 PM IST First published on: Jul 25, 2026 at 06:59 PM IST As new beginnings are made, it becomes necessary to ring out the old. The resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, over a month after the start of students’ protests triggered by the NEET exam paper leak, is welcome. The minister has done the right thing by making way for someone who will now have to earn the trust of the students’ community. A community that, to its enormous credit, came together in a leaderless agitation and made itself heard. The twin issues of education and unemp