Congress hails students for ‘sacking’ Education Minister; says fight against system continues

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera on Saturday congratulated the country’s students, unemployed youth and Gen-Z for forcing the exit of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, describing the development as a victory of their courage against an insensitive system rather than the removal of one individual.

Addressing a press conference at the AICC office on 24 Akbar Road, Khera said Pradhan had become a symbol of a failing education system, paper leaks, corruption in the education department, police brutality and governmental apathy. “He was a symbol… but let’s be very clear, he was just a symbol. The fight was not against the symbol. The fight was, is and will remain against the system,” Khera said.

He linked the system to a series of student suicides, stating that 21 young people had taken their lives in recent months and 93 over five years. The youth, he said, had demonstrated that “even a thousand sticks of oppression cannot silence one voice of courage.” Protesters had faced lathi charges, tear gas, water cannons, pellet guns and shock batons. Leaders including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi had also been dragged on the streets, Khera claimed.

Referring to recent social media activity by the Prime Minister, Khera rejected any suggestion of friendship between the government and the youth. “You have not earned their friendship. They do not treat you as a friend. If you were a friend, you would not have rained lathis and bullets on these children,” he said. He pointed to visible pellet-gun marks on a young supporter standing with Rahul Gandhi outside 10 Janpath as evidence of the violence.

Khera quoted Rahul Gandhi’s remark that “Narendra Modi is the past. We are fighting for the future of this country” and Priyanka Gandhi’s statement that “this is the beginning of the end.” He described the minister’s exit as the start of a larger process, warning that the outgoing establishment was destroying the future of crores of people even as it departed.

One of the key student demands—the removal of the symbolic figure—had been met, Khera acknowledged. But accountability for the violence on 20 July and subsequent incidents remained non-negotiable. He demanded that responsibility be fixed for the use of pellet guns, lathis and other force, and that the Prime Minister apologise to the youth and their parents for the violence, the suicides and the hopelessness created among them.

Responding to Pradhan’s reported comment that the agitation risked falling into the hands of anti-national forces, Khera dismissed the charge as an outdated “tool kit.” He said the same labels—anti-national, Khalistani, Chinese agents—had been used against farmers and opposition leaders earlier. “The expiry date of this tool kit is long past,” he said, advising Pradhan to reflect rather than recycle old narratives.

Khera rejected any credit to the government for the ministerial change. “He was not removed. He was sacked by the youth of this country, by the united opposition of this country… This is just the beginning of the end,” he asserted.

On whether protests should now end, Khera was categorical. Congress, he said, had raised the education and unemployment issues long before they dominated headlines. The anger was not limited to NEET or CBSE paper leaks but stemmed from broader governmental insensitivity and a record of unemployment. The party, its student and youth wings, and leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge would continue standing with the students and raising their voice in Parliament until justice was delivered.

Khera maintained that the three core demands remained unchanged: accountability for the violence, an apology from the Prime Minister, and concrete steps to repair the education system. Only after these were addressed, he said, could meaningful parliamentary discussion on reforms begin.