In 1997, Dharmendra Pradhan stood outside the Odisha government secretariat with roughly 1,500 students, protesting a paper leak. Police charged at the crowd. Pradhan was beaten and sustained fractures.
He is now India's Union Education Minister. Students have gathered at Delhi's Jantar Mantar demanding his resignation over alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG examination.
The two events are separated by nearly three decades, involve different states, different circumstances, and different sides of the same issue. The parallel has drawn renewed attention to how Pradhan arrived at the position he now holds.
Dharmendra Pradhan 1997 paper leak protest
Dharmendra Pradhan was a student activist with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) years before he became India's Union Education Minister. During his time in student politics, Pradhan organised protests, participated in rallies and served as the ABVP's National Secretary for two terms between 1994 and 1997, according to a profile published by The New Indian Express . ET has not independently verfied the incident with records.
One incident recalled by his former associates was a 1997 protest against a paper leak issue in Odisha, when Pradhan was associated with ABVP. Nearly three decades later, Pradhan, as Education Minister, has been at the centre of protests over alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG examination, with students and opposition leaders demanding accountability.
The details of Pradhan's student politics years were shared by his former associates while speaking to The New Indian Express .
The family he came from
Pradhan was born in 1969 in Talcher, in Odisha's Angul district. His father, Debendra Pradhan, was among the prominent BJP leaders from Odisha during a period when the party was still expanding its organisational base across the country. Debendra Pradhan served as Union Minister of State for Surface Transport and later for Agriculture under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and held a Lok Sabha seat from Deogarh, Odisha.
When Debendra Pradhan retired from that seat in 2004, Dharmendra succeeded him as the constituency's MP.
The 1997 protest over a paper leak in Odisha
Prashant Rout, who was Pradhan's junior at Utkal University, told The New Indian Express about a protest organised in 1997 over a paper leak issue in Odisha.
"We staged a protest against the Odisha government, in front of the secretariat. Around 1,500 students joined us there," Rout said.
According to Rout, the protest was peaceful initially, but police action followed.
"We were quite scared. Pradhan was badly beaten up that time. He had a few fractures too," he said.
Rout also shared a photograph of an injured Pradhan with the publication and recalled another incident related to university elections.
"Elections in universities often got violent, owing to the ruling party's involvement. During one such incident, knowing that Pradhan was set to win the university elections, the Janata Dal goons had beaten him up, brutally," Rout told The New Indian Express .
These accounts were provided by Pradhan's former associates while speaking to the publication.
