New Delhi: Two days after he was forced to resign as Union education minister facing nationwide protests demanding his exit and calls for accountability for successive competitive exam paper leaks, Dharmendra Pradhan received a rousing welcome from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and National Democratic Alliance MPs in parliament on Monday (July 27).Pradhan arrived in parliament on Monday morning and was immediately greeted by BJP and NDA MPs who chanted slogans of “Dharmendra Pradhan zindabad”, draped a shawl around his neck, and a traditional pag (turban) on his head. The ceremonial welcome did not betray any sense of the circumstances under which Pradhan was forced to resign just on Saturday (July 25). On July 20, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) which had been protesting for a month in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar against exam paper leaks and demanding Pradhan’s resignation, had called a Sansad Chalo march. Responding to the call, thousands of protesters gathered and were met with the Delhi Police’s brute force. The protest only intensified after the police action. As crowds swelled at Jantar Mantar, the agitation spread nationwide and the opposition too kept up the pressure both inside and outside parliament. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two reels announcing fast track courts for paper leak cases did little to quell the anger and Pradhan resigned on Saturday afternoon.The Wire has reported that Pradhan’s resignation was met with praise from Union ministers and BJP leaders on Saturday, and said that he had “transformed” India’s education system, contributed to nation-building and revealed a “steadfast commitment”. The statements showed no signs of any introspection into why the resignation was tendered, or why people were asking for it.Outside parliament on Monday, Pradhan was seen smiling with folded hands as he greeted his fellow MPs from the BJP and NDA as they welcomed him with slogans. Opposition MPs also held a protest outside parliament holding banners that read “paper chori, vote chori, chanda chori”.Photo: X/@INCIndiaThe Wire has reported that in his resignation note on Saturday, Pradhan had wrote how the government had acted swiftly after the NEET-UG paper leak in May and then went on to blame some individuals had who had “misled students”, but made no mention of the successive irregularities in the last two years alone, or the criticism of the Central Board of Secondary Education’s on-screen marking system just two months ago.