Dharmendra Pradhan, who resigned as Union Education Minister on Saturday following nationwide student protests over alleged irregularities in the NEET examination, received a rousing welcome from BJP and NDA MPs as he arrived at Parliament on Monday.
As the Odisha MP stepped out of his vehicle, party members greeted him with slogans of "Dharmendra Pradhan zindabad." One MP draped a shawl over his shoulders and placed a traditional cap on his head, while several others came to greet him in a show of solidarity.
The Congress, however, strongly criticised the gesture.
"They did the same thing with the rapists of Bilkis Bano. It is their habit," Congress Rajya Sabha MP Renuka Chowdhury said.
Pradhan resigned on Saturday after weeks of student protests in Delhi and several other parts of the country over alleged irregularities in the NEET examination.
Announcing his resignation, Pradhan said he did not want "anti-national forces" to exploit the situation. He added that the developments over the past 10 days had "saddened" him deeply and that the issue was "not a matter of personal prestige."
The protests were spearheaded by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), a platform launched by former AAP functionary Abhijeet Dipke as a satirical online campaign in May before it evolved into one of the country's most significant youth-led protest movements in recent years.
Pradhan is the second Union minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tenure to resign following a major public controversy. The first was M.J. Akbar, who stepped down as Minister of State for External Affairs in 2018 after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment during the #MeToo movement.
