New Delhi: Even as Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan broke his silence over the raging popular storm around the NEET paper leak on July 21, Tuesday, night, social media is abuzz with photos and details of a protest he had led in his home state, Odisha, against an alleged paper leak and got beaten up 29 years ago.
With demands for his resignation rising, the 57-year-old minister, an MP in Lok Sabha from Odisha’s western Sambalpur constituency, wrote a 175-word-long post on X to slam Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for marching to PM Narendra Modi’s residence in New Delhi earlier in the day. Pradhan accused Gandhi and Congress of continuing “to shamelessly exploit students as political tools to manufacture disruption during the Monsoon Session of Parliament”. He said the Modi government “remains 100% committed to discussing NEET and addressing every genuine concern of our youth on the floor of the House”.
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Eager not to let go of the irony involved in Pradhan’s situation, social media users circulated 2021 report claiming he participated in a protest against a question paper leak in Odisha in 1997. It was a protest outside Odisha Secretariat over an alleged paper leak in the state, during which Pradhan was reportedly injured in a police lathi charge, as per the claims based on a report in The New Indian Express.
Pradhan’s protest in 1997 was against the Congress government in Odisha. Nearly 1,500 students were present at the demonstration outside Odisha Secretariat, and a lathicharge by police that ensued had led to Pradhan suffering multiple fractures, according to the claims which have not been verified by The News Dare.
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The year 1997 is crucial. The alleged question paper leak in Odisha took place at a time the newly formed Atal Bihari Vajpayee government was trying to prove majority in Parliament, and Pradhan, then a national secretary of BJP’s students’ wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), was set to join BJP.
According to many in BJP, this student protest organised by Pradhan in 1997 had helped him find a faster entry into the party and establish him as a leader of promise for future.
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“Dharmendra Pradhan has had strong organisational skills since his student days. He has contributed critically to expanding BJP’s organisational presence in Odisha over the decades. His organisational and electoral management skills were later on display in states like Bihar,” said a BJP politician in Odisha close to Pradhan.
A protest demonstration and subsequent march to Parliament House on July 20, Monday, organised by an organisation called ‘Cockroach Janata Party’ had led to lathicharge by police, the violence causing injuries to dozens of participating students and police personnel. Rahul Gandhi had protested the violence by leading a march of scores of Congress leaders and supporters to the PM’s residence in Delhi the next day.