Dharmendra Pradhan Offered To Resign On Day 1 Of Protests: Kailash Vijayvargiya

Dharmendra Pradhan had offered to resign on the first day of the student protests, BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya has claimed, a day after he quit as education minister in the face of a massive protest over the NEET paper leak.

Vijayvargiya, a minister in the Madhya Pradesh government, said he had known Pradhan since their student politics days and that he deserves praise for his honesty and dedication.

"From the very first day of the movement, he told the party chief, 'If you feel that I should resign, I would.' The party chief refused. But when circumstances became such that the party decided he should resign, he did so in a split second," he told reporters in Indore yesterday.

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This is the hallmark of a good party worker, Vijayvargiya stressed.

Pradhan resigned yesterday after massive protests by students across the country, led by month-long demonstrations at Jantar Mantar by the satirical political movement Cockroach Janta Party.

He said the decision to give up his post was rooted in his resolve to prevent "anti-national forces" from exploiting the protests.

Echoing similar views, Vijayvargiya claimed Pradhan's resignation has foiled the designs of "foreign forces" that wanted to destabilise India by spreading violence, as had happened in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

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"I congratulate him for what he has done," he added.

The Madhya Pradesh minister went on to target the opposition for trying to weaponise the CJP protests.

"The students launched the agitation and the Congress merely stood behind them. After the West Bengal assembly election, the Opposition became completely demoralised and, in that state of despair, found a ray of hope in the CJP," he said.