New Delhi: The cancellation of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for undergraduate admissions (NEET-UG) following a paper leak has once again put the spotlight on Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan. Pradhan, against whom Congress member of parliament (MP) Jairam Ramesh has moved a notice of motion of privilege, is not new to criticism over the functioning of his ministry.From paper leaks, to the role of the National Testing Agency (NTA), to his dismissal of a parliamentary standing committee report, this year alone, Pradhan’s ministry has faced flak over the now-stayed University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026 and an NCERT book ban that included references to “corruption in judiciary.”While Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has demanded Pradhan’s resignation after the latest paper leak and the subsequent NEET-UG cancellation, the education minister is not the only member of the Narendra Modi government facing scrutiny. With the ongoing conflict in West Asia, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri has come under fire – not only for his repeated mentions in the Epstein files, but also for rising fuel prices amid reports of shortages, despite his assurances that there are “no supply problems.” The crashing rupee, branded “Asia’s worst performing currency” months before the West Asia crisis, along with fleeing foreign direct investment and a perilous economy, has prompted a myriad of questions for Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.Dharmendra Pradhan and the NEET-UG crisisOver 22 lakh candidates appeared for the NEET 2026 exam, held on May 3 across 5,432 centres nationwide, before it was cancelled on Tuesday, May 12, due to alleged irregularities linked to a paper leak. Last week, Pradhan did not address the continued paper leaks in various entrance exams; instead, he announced that the test would transition to a computer-based format from next year. At a press conference, he also dismissed a parliamentary committee report that had flagged concerns surrounding how the NTA conducts exams, saying that the panel includes members of the opposition. Bengaluru: Members of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) hold torches and placards as they raise slogans during a protest against the against the cancellation of NEET-UG 2026 over a suspected paper leak, demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, at Freedom Park, in Bengaluru, Karnataka on Thursday, May 14, 2026. Photo: PTI/Shailendra Bhojak.The parliamentary panel, in 2025, had questioned NTA’s performance and found that in 2024 alone, “of the 14 competitive examinations conducted by the NTA, at least five faced major issues, and as result, three examinations, viz. UGC-NET, CSIR-NET and NEET-PG, had to be postponed; one examination, viz. NEET-UG, saw instances of paper leaks and one examination, i.e. CUET (UG/PG), saw its results postponed.”In July 2024, however, Pradhan had categorically declared that there had been “no evidence of paper leaks in the last seven years,” even though a month earlier, when the UGC-NET examination was cancelled, he had admitted that a paper leak had occurred.The Quint has also reported on multiple instances of paper leaks when the minister made his remark in parliament.Pradhan is not new to the Modi government. He became the education minister in 2021 and has continued to hold the position after winning the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Odisha’s Sambalpur. He has served as a minister since the Modi government first came to power back in 2014, initially as Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Petroleum and Natural Gas, then as Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in 2017. He was later appointed as the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel in 2019. In July 2021, he took charge of the Education Ministry, while retaining the Skill Development and Entrepreneurship portfolio. Beyond his ministry’s failures, Pradhan’s role within the BJP organisation has remained a talking point. He was the party’s election in-charge in Bihar last year, where the saffron party now has a chief minister for the first time. He was also credited with the party’s manifesto in the 2024 elections in his home state of Odisha, where the BJP formed a government for the first time, dislodging the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) after two decades in power. Previously, he has been credited with the party’s election campaigns in Haryana (2024), Uttar Pradesh (2022) and Uttarakhand (2017).Also read: Eight Policy Rollbacks and Curriculum Rows That Defined Education Under the Modi GovernmentHardeep Singh Puri: From the Epstein files to empty cylindersBefore Pradhan came under fire, it was Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri who faced calls for his resignation after he was mentioned repeatedly in email exchanges with convicted sex offender and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.While Puri did not resign, he was left to give a slew of interviews in his defence, as the Epstein files caused a furore globally. The Modi government’s silence on the matter, after Puri said that he had only been “pushing the India story” and had emerged “smelling of roses,” made it an outlier.Since then, Puri has come under renewed scrutiny following the conflict in West Asia, which led to reports of LPG shortages across the country.For the second time in a week, fuel prices were hiked on Tuesday, May 19, by about 90 paise per litre across all variants. This brings the total increase to around Rs 3.90 per litre since May 15, when fuel prices were raised after four years.The hike comes as global oil prices shot past $120 a barrel, driven by disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz in light of the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, before easing slightly.People queue up to avail refilled LPG cylinders amid shortage linked to the West Asia war, in Mumbai. Photo: PTI.The Wire has reported that while India’s fuel price hikes have been projected as a deviation from otherwise stable pricing, India did not lower prices when global crude oil crashed in previous years, meaning the base price was already elevated.Just last week, Puri, without ruling out the possibility of further price increases, had said there was no fuel supply shortage in the country, even as Prime Minister Modi, on two successive days, urged citizens to adopt austerity measures amid the ongoing conflict. Puri instead pointed to losses incurred by oil companies amounting to Rs 1 lakh crore. Earlier, amid reports of LPG shortages, Puri remained silent for days on how the effective closure of key shipping routes would affect India’s energy security. When he finally made his first remarks on the issue in parliament on March 12, a full twelve days after the conflict started, he blamed panic booking and hoarding driven by consumer anxiety, rather than supply shortage.Nirmala Sitharaman and a currency in freefallOn March 30, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told parliament that the Indian economy is “strong” and compared to other emerging market economies, the rupee is “absolutely going fine” against the US dollar.When she made the remarks, the rupee was touching close to Rs 94 against the dollar, in the aftermath of the West Asia conflict. Since then, the situation has worsened. Over the course of the last week alone, Modi has called for austerity measures amid the conflict, calling attention to the state of the economy. On Tuesday, the rupee fell to a new record low of Rs 96.47 against the US dollar in intraday trade, weighed down by a slump in market sentiment, rising crude oil prices and Modi’s “austerity” call.The Wire has reported that the Indian rupee has experienced a significant decline against the Pakistani rupee over the past 12 months, a period that coincided with the announcement of a ceasefire by US President Donald Trump after the 88-hour-long Operation Sindoor in May 2025. The rupee has continued to fall since, with large capital outflows dominating sentiment. The imposition of 50% tariff on India by President Trump has compounded the pressure on the currency.Also read: Indian Rupee Has Fallen by Nearly 12% Against Pakistani Rupee Since Operation SindoorThe weakening rupee has prompted continued selling by foreign investors. In the first four months of this year, foreign portfolio investors offloaded some Rs 1.92 lakh crore in Indian equities, surpassing the Rs 1.66 lakh crore total sell-off figure for all of last year.With Modi calling for austerity measures, India, the world’s second-largest consumer of gold and the largest silver importer, with almost all domestic demand met through overseas supply, has raised import tariffs on gold and silver to 15%, reversing the 2024 duty cuts. Rishikesh: A closed jewellery shop during a protest by traders against the Centre over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to refrain from buying gold for a year, in Rishikesh on Friday, May 15, 2026. Photo: PTI.While these moves indicate that all is not well with the economy, Sitharaman is yet to make a statement on the developments. It was Modi, not Sitharaman, who took the unusual step of personally “denying” a now-recanted report, by Ambani-owned news television channel, that the government was considering taxing foreign travel. Sitharaman simply retweeted the prime minister’s post.Ultimately, the failure of government policy has not only put the spotlight on these ministers, but also on the prime minister himself, who has presided over an increasingly personalised government structure for the last 12 years. It was no surprise, then, that just days after urging citizens to adopt austerity measures, Modi headed for a five-nation tour, drawing criticism from his core middle-class voter base, for not leading by example.Also read: The PM’s Appeal to Citizens For Austerity Reflects the Failure of ModinomicsThe opposition has also questioned whether billionaire Gautam Adani was the reason that India agreed to the trade deal with the US, calling it “a one-sided deal” struck “so Adani could get relief,” after The New York Times reported that the businessman had indicated a willingness to invest $10 billion in the US and create around 15,000 jobs if “prosecutors dropped the charges.”Modi’s five-nation tour has been marred by questions over his unwillingness to take questions from journalists, with reporters in both the Netherlands and Norway clashing with Indian diplomats over the prime minister’s unavailability to the press.