India, July 25 -- It's rare for the Narendra Modi government to bow to public pressure. Even rarer is a sitting minister resigning. This is why education minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation is such a big event.

To even draw a remote parallel, one has to rewind the clock all the way to 2018, when MJ Akbar stepped down from his post as Union minister of state for external affairs at the height of the #MeToo movement.

Dharmendra Pradhan resigned on Saturday, marking a major victory for the Cockroach Janta Party-led protests against alleged paper leaks. The protesters refused to budge without his resignation despite the government assuring that it would accede to their other demands, including compensation to the families of students ...