Hello and a very warm welcome. You're watching The Wire. We are bringing you latest updates from today's major news developments. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has tendered his resignation. The resignation has come five days after police in Delhi unleashed brute force on protesters who had responded to the call of the Kokoro Janata Party to march to Parliament on Monday, July 20. increased in numbers and the protests then spread across the country across several cities and states. Prime Minister Narendra Modi responding to the Gen Z who were said to be a major part of these protests he released two major reels in an effort to reach out to the youth who were protesting on the streets of the country but instead today we saw on Saturday afternoon Dharmendra Pradhan released a letter that he posted on Twitter in which he said that he is resigning. His replacement has just been announced a few moments earlier. Pralad Joshi, who was already part of the cabinet, is going to be replacing him. Now, a lot of people are saying that this is a major victory for democracy with the youth hitting the streets and a major reversal for the Modi government. In fact, the first major reversal under sustained public pressure that has forced the resignation of a union minister. So what does this mean for Indian democracy, for the Modi government in its 12th year? To analyze all this, I'm being joined by a battery of senior journalists who are going to help us understand this. Joining me today is Siddharth Vardarajan. He's founding editor at The Wire. Seema Chishti, she is editor at The Wire. Vrinda Gopinath, she is an independent journalist. And Javed Ansari, who is a senior journalist. And all of them have tracked political developments in India for several decades. And in due course, I'll also be joined by Apar Gupta, talking to us about the surveillance of the Delhi Piddi and as well as Siddharth Bhatia who is founding editor at The Wire. He's going to be telling us towards the end a little bit about how the cultural impact has been of this protest. But first off I want to come to you Javed Ansari on the developments that we have seen today. This is in many ways a departure from how the Modi government has been functioning in the last 12 years. While we know that there have been some resignations in the last 12 years, notably in 2018, it was M.J. Akbar who was MOS, External Affairs. He had resigned during the MeToo movement. And prior to that, Suresh Prabhu had attended his resignation, but that was kept on hold. And then he was moved in a cabinetry shuffle. first major resignation under the Modi government under public pressure. Is this a fair assessment of Modi giving in to what the people are demanding on the streets? Well certainly, this is the first time and this is a departure from their unstated policy. Although Mr. Rajnath Singh did in an aside mention that government doesn't believe in resignations. This is what he had said because this government believed that Getting the ministers to resign was an admission of guilt, was a sign of weakness for a self-proclaimed, strong, decisive government. So in that case, certainly it is a victory. It's a big victory. The punchers' aura, the Prime Minister's aura, the myth of his invincibility has been knocked back and you have to give it to the youth that they have ensured that this fear of Modi, the fear of this Modi government has taken a severe beating. This despite the brutal assault, this despite everything, the false cases that have been put from them. But You know, there are still a lot of grey areas. I don't know for one what happens to the false cases that have been put on these kids. What happens, what about the compensation? What about the action against those guilty policemen and their officers who assaulted these students? So what about that? And what happens to the compensation? You remove Dharmendra Pradhan, you remove A and bring B. Yes, removing Dharmendra Pradhan is big. That was one of the main demands. But if you're going to continue with the same policies and these policemen and women get away spot free for assaulting. these kids then all this will will not amount to much so therefore uh like they say the devil is in the detail and i would still like to wait to see what happens on that front Before you go, I know you told us that you have another commitment, but I want to ask you one more question before you leave us, which is that the response that has been coming from the union minister that you mentioned Rajnath Singh, but other union ministers, BJP leaders, in a sense, not really acknowledging that the reason Dharmendra Pradhan had to resign was because of public pressure. They have been eulogizing him in a certain way, saying that he had deep public connect. He tried to transform. Indian education, crediting him for NEP and it's only praises that Union ministers and BJP president Nitin Nabeen. Now we must tell our viewers that Prime Minister Modi is yet to react to this resignation but apart from that the top ministers of the country have reacted and they have praised him. So what kind of resignation is this in which the people in essence force the ministers to step down yet his cabinet colleagues are praising him to no end as if he has achieved something really big. So, I mean, how does that really play out? Well, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what his minister, what his ministerial colleagues think and do. The way they were making a beeline to his house after he announced his resignation, one would wonder as to what had happened. Has there been some bereavement? Or has he won India a gold medal in the Olympics and they're going to congratulate him? What was it all about? It doesn't matter what they think. The people have delivered the verdict. They demanded his resignation and they've got it at some cost, but they've got it. They forced the prime minister, they forced an arrogant government, an arrogant prime minister to climb down and acknowledge the demand of the students and that is to get one of his ministers to resign. This is the first time. This is the first time that under public pressure, this so-called strong government has had to take a back step. And that is, and you know, the significance of this should not be lost out on anybody. Thank you. And how far do you think that the opposition can take credit for this? Because we've seen Rahul Gandhi hitting the streets. In a sense, a lot of people keep saying that the opposition doesn't come on the streets. So in the last seven days, the opposition has kind of come together in demanding Pradhan's resignation. And they protested outside Prime Minister Modi's residence. There was a symbolic visit to Gandhi's smriti. And inside Parliament also, they have made it unnegotiable. that unless Pradhan goes, there will be no debate in Parliament. And there's a lot of people saying that the opposition has tried to cash in on what was essentially a genuine people's movement. How far do you think that the opposition can take credit for this? but the main credit goes to the students. This movement had taken a life of its own. With Mr. Manchuk, without Mr. Manchuk, with DG, without TK, this movement had taken a life of its own. But you also, while the critical mass was supplied by the students, you also have to give credit to the opposition. What the opposition did was a pincer movement, while not entirely joining. joining the stage, thereby giving the government a chance to say that this is politically inspired in parliament and out on the streets. They kept up the pressure by taking the battle to the prime minister's doorstep by Optics also play a large role and in Parliament. In Parliament there is a concerted pressure from the opposition led by the opposition. this time by Mr. Rahul Gandhi. And you know, it's very easy to hit out at Rahul Gandhi. But the fact is that even before CGP, he's the one who started with this. He is the one who started this Chhatra ke Goanjani, when he started raising these issues. Yes, CJP stepped in and then they took it a step further. So the credit... primarily goes to CJP, but the opposition also deserves a certain amount of credit. Alright Javed, thank you so much for joining us. I will request our producer Meenal to, since Javed was speaking about the CJP, let's first show our viewers some visuals of the celebrations that have come in from Jantar Mantar since Pradhan's resignation. - What up? - - Okay. It's done though. you I'm not going to... Yes, we do. - Keep on going, hold your eyes. What are you doing? Oh yeah, he's tip-off! Hawaii's vodka! If you guys won't get scared! If you don't bow down to the government... Chug it!
