“Dharmendra Pradhan istifa do.” (“Dharmendra Pradhan, resign.”)
The chant rolled across Mumbai’s Shivaji Park on Wednesday evening as thousands of students, graduates, parents, job seekers and supporters gathered around one of the city’s most recognisable public spaces.
For hours, demonstrators occupied the roads surrounding the historic ground, long associated with political rallies and public movements.
From balconies overlooking the procession, residents watched the march unfold. Some applauded as protesters passed below, while others filmed the demonstration from their homes.
The immediate demand was clear: the resignation of union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The protests trace their origins to the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-UG), India’s nationwide entrance examination for undergraduate medical and dental programs.
More than 2.2 million candidates sat this year’s examination before authorities cancelled it following allegations that the question paper had been leaked, forcing students to sit an unprecedented nationwide re-examination weeks later.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the alleged leak, has arrested 13 people and says it has uncovered what investigators describe as a multi-state network involving individuals linked to the examination process, coaching teachers and intermediaries.
According to the agency, questions from the Physics, Chemistry and Biology papers were allegedly circulated to students before the examination in exchange for money, with searches conducted across dozens of locations continuing as investigators prepare to file a chargesheet.
The controversy has also been accompanied by reports of dozens of NEET-linked student suicides this year, transforming what began as an examination scandal into a broader debate about the psychological toll of India’s intensely competitive entrance examination system.
For many protesters, Pradhan has become the face of the crisis, with demonstrators arguing that the minister should be held politically accountable for the handling of NEET and its aftermath.
“The government has for years shown apathy towards us and our rights,” one protester told The PIE News. “We believe the education system in this country needs thorough reform, and people who fail to take accountability should resign.”
The crowd reflected that broader frustration.
Medical aspirants marched alongside university students, recent graduates, unemployed youths, parents and working professionals. Many of those attending appeared to be in their late teens and 20s.
Yet despite the palpable anger, the demonstration remained notably disciplined.
Volunteers directed traffic at busy junctions, reminded demonstrators not to use abusive language and encouraged participants to avoid disrupting commuters and local residents. Throughout the evening, organisers moved through the crowd checking on participants and helped manage the march.
At the same time, there was an unmistakable sense of caution.
Police maintained a visible presence around Shivaji Park while vehicles used to transport detainees repeatedly made their way around the protest route. Whenever they appeared, warnings spread quickly through the gathering. Protesters alerted one another, with some moving between locations in groups as a precaution against possible detentions.
The scenes unfolding in Mumbai reflected a movement that has rapidly expanded across India.
Initially fuelled by outrage over the NEET controversy, the demonstrations have evolved into broader calls for accountability and education reform, with protests taking place in several cities. One of the movement’s largest demonstrations has centred on Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.
If a failed and incompetent minister is being considered more important than these crores of students, then remember: no one in India will vote for you in the elections
Abhijit Dipke, Cockroach Janata Party
Much of that momentum has been channelled through the newly formed Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a youth-led satirical movement whose name parodies the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The group emerged after Chief Justice of India Surya Kant drew widespread criticism for referring to some unemployed young people as “cockroaches” during a court hearing, a label students later reclaimed as a symbol of resilience and protest.
Back at Shivaji Park, those wider national developments were reflected in both the slogans adorning placards and the overall mood.
Frustration was directed not only at Pradhan but also at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and what protesters repeatedly referred to as the “Godi media”—a pejorative term used by critics to describe sections of India’s mainstream media they believe have become overly sympathetic to the BJP.
The movement has also drawn national attention through engineer and activist Sonam Wangchuk, whose 26-day hunger strike became one of its defining symbols. Wangchuk ended his fast on Friday after what he described as lengthy negotiations with the government, saying he had done so because of the possibility of violence and urging supporters to ensure the protests remained peaceful.
As protests continued across Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and elsewhere, Modi made his first public intervention since the demonstrations escalated, announcing that the government would establish fast-track courts to ensure “swift and stringent punishment” in paper leak cases.
“Nothing is more important than the welfare and future of our youth,” Modi wrote on X, adding that those responsible for harming students’ futures “will not be spared.”
Protest organisers, however, argue that criminal prosecutions alone cannot resolve what they see as deeper structural problems within India’s examination system.
CJP founding president Abhijeet Dipke urged Modi to remove Pradhan from office, warning that public anger could eventually extend to the prime minister himself.
“Modi ji, I once again request you to accept Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation. Otherwise, the issue will not remain limited to Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation alone; it will come for your resignation also,” Dipke said.
“An incompetent and failed minister cannot be more important than the crores of students in this country. If a failed and incompetent minister is being considered more important than these crores of students, then remember: no one in India will vote for you in the elections.”
Despite Wangchuk ending his fast, Dipke said the CJP’s protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar would continue until Pradhan resigned and called for peaceful demonstrations to be held across the country on Friday.
By late evening, the crowd had begun to thin after thousands had spent hours occupying the roads around Shivaji Park.
Police vehicles continued to make their rounds. Protesters continued warning one another to stay together while volunteers remained stationed at key junctions, directing the crowd.
What had begun as outrage over a leaked entrance examination had, for many gathered in Mumbai, become something far broader: a demand to restore confidence in an education system they believed had failed them.
“If we don’t speak up now,” one student said, “it won’t just be our generation. Future generations will continue going through the same education system, one that creates psychological pressure instead of encouraging genuine, care-driven learning.”
