Jairam Ramesh@Jairam_Ramesh
Mantri Pradhan is an indifferent, insensitive, incompetent, and inveterate liar like the Pradhan Mantri. At a time when he has disappointed the aspirations of millions of students, he refuses to resign and instead continues to demonstrate his unchecked arrogance and pettiness through social media posts.
The fact is that the call for his resignation is not premised on one issue but a whole host of failures and corruption that has characterised his tenure as Union Minister of Education. A few choice examples of corruption -
i. The continuous failure of the National Testing Agency (NTA) on his watch - which includes the multiple paper leaks and paper cancellations of 2024, and the NEET-UG and UGC-NET Sociology paper leak in 2026. The Minister’s response has been one of arrogance and petty politics, including official denials that any paper leak took place, and a refusal to acknowledge the recommendations made by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education to strengthen the NTA because it has members of the Opposition in it.
ii. The corruption in the procurement of the On Screen Marking System (OSM) for the CBSE’s Grade 12 Board Examinations. A company which has a known track record of failure was awarded the contract after the CBSE revised the tender three times with modifications that benefited COEMPT. It took a 18-year-old CBSE student himself to bring this scandal to light. The Government appointed a one-member commission to investigate the scandal - and though the commission's deadline of one month has passed, there is no update on what this panel has found.
iii. The appointment of Vice Chancellors solely based on their political affiliation and the implicit green signal from the Ministry to commit acts of corruption. Students and faculty from many of India’s premier institutions - Banaras Hindu University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, Allahabad University - have credibly accused their institutional leadership of corruption and a dictatorial attitude. Faculty appointments are reportedly being sold to the highest bidder, with the ‘price’ starting at Rs. 30 lakh. At least two Central Universities - North Eastern Hill University in Shillong and Tezpur University in Assam - have witnessed such vociferous protests against their Vice Chancellors that they have had to leave campus and operate remotely. These are all persons that have been handpicked by Mantri Pradhan and Pradhan Mantri to oversee the gutting of India’s higher education system.
iv. Abundant corruption in other autonomous bodies and institutions of the Ministry. There has been a bribery scandal in the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) which has led to the filing of a CBI chargesheet against a Professor at JNU - who was recruited by this regime's favourite Vice Chancellor and then appointed by the very same VC to the NAAC as well. The CBI has also filed a chargesheet alleging corruption against the Chancellor of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, who was also previously appointed as Chairman of the University Grants Commission by the Modi Government. The Indian Council for Historical Research has also been mired in reports of financial irregularities.
This is the tip of the iceberg. There will be a proper accounting of Mantri Pradhan’s abysmal record as Minister soon.