In the eye of the storm over the NEET paper leak that triggered nationwide student protests, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had led a student protest that had turned violent in Bhubaneswar over a paper leak three decades ago.
Pradhan, who was the national secretary of RSS student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in 1996, had led a protest with more than 2,000 students outside the Odisha Assembly over a leak of the Class 12 board examination paper conducted by the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE). Pradhan, who was 27 then, led the protest against the then Congress government headed by Chief Minister J B Patnaik.
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According to Prashant Rout, who was Pradhan’s junior in Utkal University and also associated with the ABVP, Pradhan was badly injured during a clash with the Rapid Action Force (RAF) deployed by the government and hospitalised for days.
“Question paper leak in Odisha was a recurring problem during the 1990s and it became a major concern for students and parents at that time. Pradhan, who was active in student politics during his youth days, called for a massive protest. The police resorted to lathi charge in which over hundreds sustained serious injuries,” Rout said.
He said after the student protest in 1996, the government enacted several reforms, including restructuring the examination committee to also include MLAs among other measures.
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According to Rout, Pradhan, since his student days, was vocal over students’ issues and had frequent confrontations with the authorities.
Born on June 26, 1969 into a political family, Pradhan had been deeply involved in the RSS’s socio-cultural activities since his childhood. His father Debendra Pradhan, a doctor by profession, was a prominent BJP leader in Odisha, who became the Union minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
Starting as an ABVP activist as a higher secondary student in Talcher College in his home town, he became president of the college’s student union in 1985, state secretary of the ABVP in 1993 and its national secretary in 1995. Pradhan, who pursued his master’s degree in anthropology from Utkal University in Bhubaneswar, Odisha’s premier institution for higher education, had contested the student union election in 1990 but lost to Arun Sahoo, currently a senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader.
Senior BJP leader Sudipta Ray, who was Pradhan’s senior in university, remembers Pradhan as a “good manager” and “meticulous planner”. “He was known for his ‘don’t give up’ attitude. Despite his defeat in the Utkal University student union poll, he continued to work hard for the ABVP and rose through the ranks. One of his biggest qualities is that he admits his mistakes and tries to correct himself,” Ray told The Indian Express.
Following his father’s footsteps, Pradhan joined the BJP in 1998 and became an MLA for the first time in 2000 from the Pallahara seat in the BJD-BJP coalition government. As an MLA, Pradhan was conferred with the Utkalmani Gopabandhu Pratibha Sanman, the best legislator award of the Odisha Assembly.
Active in party organisation, Pradhan became the president of the party’s youth wing in 2001, and was elevated as national secretary in 2002. In 2004, he became the national president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the BJP’s youth wing. In 2004, Pradhan was elected to the Lok Sabha from Deogarh.
Active in the BJP’s national politics, Pradhan managed to get a Rajya Sabha berth in 2012 from Bihar and became the petroleum minister in 2014 after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister. Following the BJP’s rise across India after 2014, Pradhan was considered the party’s most prominent face in Odisha considering his close proximity to the BJP top brass. Pradhan secured a renomination to the Rajya Sabha in 2018 from Madhya Pradesh and retained his Union Cabinet berth in the Modi government’s second term.
Pradhan was given the education portfolio in 2021, which he continued to hold in the NDA government’s third term. After a gap of 15 years, Pradhan returned to direct electoral politics in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, winning from the Sambalpur constituency with a massive mandate.