New Delhi: After Dharmendra Pradhan tendered his resignation on Saturday, Union Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi took additional charges of the Ministry of Education on Sunday.
Soon after assuming office, Joshi chaired a review meeting with the Ministry officials, where he reviewed the implementation of various Schemes and other initiatives. Union Minister of State of Education Jayant Chaudhary also attended the review meeting.
Speaking to the media after chairing the meet, Joshi said, “This is a new ministry for me. It is big. I sat with senior officials today and attempted to understand the functioning of the ministry.”
Joshi said he was in Karnataka last night and arrived in New Delhi on Sunday morning to take charge of the ministry.
Later, in a post on X, he also thanked PM Modi for his appointment and said, “ I am grateful to Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji for placing his faith in me and entrusting me with this responsibility. I accept it with humility and a deep sense of duty.”
Earlier on July 23, the secretary of Higher Education as well as that of School Education were moved out as a part of a series of actions taken by the government as the pressure kept mounting.
Pradhan, who led the ministry since July 2021, was forced to resign after a 36-day long protest at Jantar Mantar, spearheaded by Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), which saw participation from thousands of mostly-young demonstrators, calling for accountability after several exam-related irregularities and discrepancies, including NEET-UG 2026 paper leak.
CJP immediately called-off the protest after Pradhan resigned, which also marked all three key demands of the satirical-party getting accepted by the union government after three rounds of talks between the two parties.
Pradhan was the fourth education minister since 2014, when the BJP-led NDA came to power. None of his predecessors, Smriti Irani, Prakash Javadekar and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, could last long, with Pradhan being the only one to complete three years.