4 min readMumbaiJul 22, 2026 04:30 AM IST
THE demand for the Education Minister’s resignation is “political” and there’s no “succumbing” to it; the lapses behind the NEET leak have been fixed; admissions under the three largest entrance examinations, NEET retest, CUET and JEE Main, are largely on track; and the Government is open to a debate on the issue in Parliament.
This was the “official” sense at the senior level of the Government Tuesday, a day after the Jantar Mantar protests, which started with the NEET leak controversy, intensified leading to a police crackdown in the heart of the capital.
In conversations with The Indian Express, senior government functionaries said the Centre has no intention of yielding to demands for Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, arguing that it has neither denied the lapses nor attempted to evade responsibility.
“There was a problem. We have said this on record and have taken responsibility on record. The government is not running away from it,” a senior government functionary said.
The government’s argument is that the focus should now be on ensuring a smooth academic session rather than reopening a controversy it considers administratively settled.
Officials cited the progress on NEET, CUET and JEE Main admissions. “The majority of students have gone back to campuses,” the functionary said, adding that Delhi University’s admission of around 72,000 students is an indicator that academic activity has resumed.
The Centre’s assessment is that those continuing to lead the protests are no longer the “primary stakeholders” affected by the examination process.
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“We are not saying people should not protest. In a democracy, people have every right to protest,” another senior functionary said. “But who is raising the issue, how it is being raised and who is behind it are different questions.”
That distinction also underpins the government’s refusal to entertain demands that the Education Minister step down. Asked whether the minister should offer to resign on moral grounds after two paper leak controversies during his tenure, a senior functionary, privy to the government’s deliberations, repeatedly described the demand as “a political question”.
“It is a political question,” he said, declining to answer directly. “Should we succumb to political pressure?” he asked, arguing that the government had already accepted responsibility and taken corrective measures.
“The system was compromised by people we trusted. We are not the paper mafia. We were let down by people within the system we trusted. We did not hide the leak. We accepted responsibility and tried to fix it,” he said.
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Even as it refuses to concede the demand for resignation, the government says it is not opposed to a discussion in Parliament. “There should be debate. There should be dialogue in the House. The government is fully prepared to answer every question,” the official said.