BJP leader’s daughter explains why she backs CJP, calls new education minister a ‘bleak joke’

Yashaswinee Raje Singh, a content creator and the daughter of BJP leader Vikram Singh, who is a former MLA from Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur Sadar, has come out in support of the Gen Z-led protests held across India that demanded the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as the Union education minister over the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak and other examination-related issues.

The protests began on June 20 and ended after 36 days on July 25, following Pradhan’s resignation and the government’s acceptance of the remaining demands. Notably, Yashaswinee had also joined the protest organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.

The movement drew participation from thousands of students across the country and received backing from several major opposition parties.

“It’s really, really shortsighted to be viewing the resignation as sort of this watershed moment,” she said.

She also criticised the “language” used by the former education minister while referring to the protests and his decision to step down.

In his resignation letter, Pradhan said he was resigning to prevent the ongoing controversy “from harming students’ futures” and to ensure that “anti-national forces do not exploit the situation”.

“The language of the resignation letter itself is more of a martyr’s than of someone who’s remorseful, apologetic and holding themselves to account,” she said.

Speaking about CJP and its campaign, she said, “CJP did a very, very great job of galvanising this sort of largely apolitical audience that usually steers clear of such conversations through their innovative messaging, through memes, and their focus was Instagram, which was great because that’s where we saw so much of the ordinary people’s coverage of the protests.”

“The person who’s been appointed as education minister now… honestly, it feels like a very, very bleak joke,” she told Al Jazeera.

“I don’t even live at home. I’ve been in India for the last three and a half years, and I live by myself,” she said.

She added, “I choose not to participate in that sort of environment at all. I have not visited there (Fatehpur Sadar) for many years. So I maintain a very, very large sort of chasm between all of that and myself. And that is how I am able to say the things I do without feeling like a hypocrite.”

The July 20 protest saw clashes between demonstrators and security personnel at several places in New Delhi, including Parliament Street, Connaught Place and Jantar Mantar.