P
ralhad Joshi formally takes charge as Minister of Education Sunday, a day after resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan Pralhad Joshi on Sunday formally assumed charge as India's Minister of Education, a day after incumbent Dharmendra Pradhan resigned after weeks of student protests against suspected anomalies in competitive exams.
The switch comes at a politically sensitive juncture, with the education sector under fire, and there are increasing calls to revamp examination procedures. Joshi, a five-term Member of Parliament from the Dharwad constituency in Karnataka, will serve as an Additional Charge for the Education Ministry while also holding portfolios for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, and New & Renewable Energy.
"As per the advice of the Prime Minister, the President has been pleased to accept the resignation of Shri Dharmendra Pradhan from the post of Union Minister for Education, and has directed that charge of the said Ministry be allocated to Shri Prahlad Joshi..." read an official statement of President's office. The tweet from Joshi also read, "Taking charge of the Ministry of Education as Additional Charge with a deep sense of duty and humility I express my sincerest gratitude to Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi Ji".
Pradhan’s exit came after the student organisations protesting across the country at Jantar Mantar in the capital over the last 37 days at the NEET-UG as well as several other national examinations on allegations of “lapses and irregularities,” including unfair selection processes, finally intensified a hunger protest which earned national backing and pressure on the ruling government by opposition political parties, leading to eventual demands of ‘transparency, accountability and overhaul.’
In his resignation Pradhan claimed that “mine is never in my personal interest but in national, so it may become a reason to undermine our national institutions that may seek to incite unrest from our children.” and added, “I could not sleep in peace for last 10 days due to these happenings.” A few hours after Pradhan’s resignation, the student organisation withdrawing the agitation stated that “as government today after assurance with regards to all the other genuine demands by student organizations, we are withdrawing the protests with all hopes and faith.”
A Brahmin who entered politics in North Karnataka in November 1962 has been one of the faces of BJP politics for over two decades. He first entered Lok Sabha in 2004 and has since been a respected organisational leader and parliamentarian who has effectively handled coordination of government's legislative work on more than one occasion.
A member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since his youth, Joshi was active during the Hubballi Idgah Maidan movement in early nineties, which is now a part of his political past.
Joshi joined the Union Cabinet once again following the landslide victory of the BJP-led NDA in general elections of 2024. In the previous government, Joshi had served as Union Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs. In his recently concluded stint, he handled the ministry of New and Renewable Energy where he had spearheaded India's ambition of building 500 GW of renewable and non-fossil fuel based power generating capacity by 2030 and country's net zero ambition for 2070.
Under him the ministry has focused on National Green Hydrogen Mission, PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, PM-KUSUM Scheme and offshore wind energy project development to increase non-fossil fuel based generation.
The latest incumbent is not a novice on examination reform. On the heels of the 2024 NEET-UG leak scandal, he himself said that government is committed to strengthen examination system and meaningful reform would take some time, adding that eventually there will be technology-driven examination procedures.
As of now, there are no convictions or significant findings by judiciary on the corruption or misconduct on him, though his career like all senior politicians has been a subject of public criticism from opposition parties and civil society organizations on policy related issues.
Joshi inherits a ministry whose examination processes come under an uncommon fire. The irregularities had exposed the lacunae in conducting and overseeing major competitive examinations that open doors for millions of students to medical and engineering colleges and higher education in India, leading to the then minister, Pradhan's, exit.
Rebuilding public faith in the system will likely be an early and formidable challenge to the new minister, observers believe. But beyond examinations, education, the ministry, has a large terrain of policy spread from school education to higher education, skill education interface to the implementation of the NEP. " His past long administrative stint in various ministries, particularly ability to balance various political compulsions, might stand him well as he juggles with education, but questions will always arise whether a minister with already two big portfolios can devote considerable time to a domain needing visible and immediate intervention", said an official who requested anonymity. Beyond policy imperatives, the politics behind the decision also seems crucial.
Taking immediate decision to replace Pradhan, the government's aim to perhaps show that it has responded swiftly to the agitation.
Delaying might have created a vacuum in the ministry, which touches lives of almost all students, across different disciplines.
