Kuala Lampur, July 27 -- A leaked examination paper cost India's Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, his job.

Pradhan was not an ineffective minister. Far from it. He was an effective, respected and influential minister.

He was widely credited with spearheading India's landmark National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, one of the country's most ambitious education reforms aimed at creating a modern, inclusive and future-ready education system.

Yet even Pradhan could not survive when millions of students lost confidence in the integrity of the system he led.

Here is the story.

On May 3, 2026, more than 2.2 million students sat for India's National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG), competing for about 130,000 places in the count...