The clamour for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged exam irregularities is growing louder both inside and outside Parliament. Evidence has now emerged in the form of video clips showing how Delhi police acted in an inhumane manner when ordered to manage the Cockroach Janata Party’s agitation. Instances of teenagers being thrashed, girls being abused by male cops and hooligans with police batons beating up protesters as well as cops without nameplates taking on student protesters with pellet guns and nail-fitted batons are going viral on social media. The protests, which have drawn beyond Delhi, are reminiscent of similar student protests that took place in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh some years back against the authoritarian rule there though their scale and demands remain far narrower in comparison. That should not tempt the government to wait them out. Instead of correcting course, it has sought to reduce the protests to a political duel with the Congress-led Opposition, and to deflect attention from its failures through proxies in civil society and the media. The Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, must own the failures on his watch and resign.
GREGORY FERNANDES, Mumbai
