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India's Education Minister Resigns, Delhi Protests End As Modi Caves To 'Cockroach' Youth Movement's Demands

India's education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, resigned on Saturday and the government agreed to every demand raised by youth demonstrators, bringing weeks of protests - the gravest political crisis of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's third term - to a jubilant close.

Pradhan's exit was the core demand of the self-styled Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), the youth movement that has camped at Delhi's Jantar Mantar since late June over the leak of medical school entrance exam papers. The May leaks forced the cancellation of results and a retest for some 2 million students, and have been linked to several student suicides.

Word of the resignation set off celebrations at the protest site, where thousands of young people danced, chanted victory slogans and handed out sweets as the national anthem played over loudspeakers. "We have done it," CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke told the crowd. Roads around the neighbouring Connaught Place business district were shut as revellers poured in.

In a post on X announcing his decision, Pradhan said he had sent his resignation to the prime minister so that forces hostile to the country could not take advantage of the situation, and voiced deep respect for the aspirations and legitimate expectations of India's young people.

Supporters of India's Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) celebrate after India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned following days of protests demanding his resignation over National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) examination paper leaks, at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, July 25, 2026. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavi

Hours later, Health Minister J.P. Nadda and Jitendra Singh, a junior minister in the prime minister's office, held a joint press conference with CJP representatives following a further round of talks. Nadda confirmed the government had accepted the movement's full list of demands, which included an overhaul of the examination system, the withdrawal of police cases filed against protesters, and compensation for the families of students who died by suicide after the leaks.

CJP spokespeople formally declared the agitation over and urged supporters across the country to head home peacefully.

The settlement prompted a swift unwinding of the security clampdown that had paralysed parts of central Delhi through the week. Mobile data services around the protest site - which the government had ordered telecom companies to switch off, leaving shopkeepers, vendors and restaurants unable to take digital payments for much of the week - were restored on Saturday. The 16 Delhi Metro stations shut in and around the area, closed for most of the past four days, reopened.

The outcome amounts to a rare climbdown for Modi, who is known for standing firm under public pressure. Pradhan, 57, the son of a veteran Bharatiya Janata Party politician and himself a senior figure once floated as a possible party president, had held the education portfolio since 2021. He is just the second minister in Modi's 12 years in power to leave office amid a scandal, after M.J. Akbar stepped down as junior foreign minister in 2018 during India's #MeToo movement.

The protests were the biggest youth revolt Modi has faced since taking office in 2014, and they had intensified sharply over the past week. Tens of thousands marched on parliament on Monday, where police responded with tear gas and cane charges; on Wednesday night, a crowd of more than 10,000 gathered at Jantar Mantar and some protesters pelted police with stones and bottles. Solidarity rallies spread to cities including Ranchi, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram and Kolkata, while opposition parties, echoing the students' demands, held up the monsoon session of parliament all week.

Modi's first public attempt to calm the unrest - a pledge on Thursday to create special courts to try those behind paper leaks, alongside his declaration on X that "Nothing is more important than the welfare and future of our youth!" - was dismissed by the CJP, which countered that punishing culprits after the fact did nothing to address why papers keep leaking in the first place.

Beyond the exam scandal, the movement tapped deeper frustration among young Indians over scarce jobs and official accountability - discontent that carries echoes of the youth uprisings that toppled governments in neighbouring Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh in recent years. With young voters a key constituency for the BJP and major state elections due next year, the political stakes for Modi were considerable.

Among those marking the moment was activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had spent 26 days on hunger strike in support of the students and hailed the outcome as proof of what peaceful persistence can achieve.

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/25/2026 - 20:25

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US To Resume Mexican Cattle Imports After Yearlong Screwworm Ban

Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times,

The United States said on Friday it will end a ban on imports of Mexican cattle implemented more than a year ago to combat the New World screwworm (NWS), a flesh-eating livestock pest that has already made it into Texas and New Mexico.

Cattle are herded in a stable in Hamilton, Texas, on June 5, 2026. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

In its announcement, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said it would coordinate a phased reopening of southern cattle ports beginning Aug. 24.

USDA officials said the United States will first start taking Mexican cattle again at Douglas, Arizona, with two more ports in New Mexico to follow.

The reopening will be staged and depends on Mexico sticking to its New World screwworm control plan. Officials called the move safe to begin now.

Ports in Arizona and New Mexico sit farther from the heaviest infestations in Mexico, livestock traders noted, which lowers the immediate risk compared with Texas crossings.

"Every animal entering the United States through these ports will undergo a full USDA inspection to ensure it is free of any signs of New World screwworm (NWS)," the USDA said.

The United States suspended imports of live Mexican cattle and related livestock on May 11, 2025, as part of efforts to curb the spread of the parasite.

Also on Friday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that she had directed local authorities to speed preparations for the reopening.

"I have instructed that we accelerate our work and collaboration with the United States even further to have everything ready as soon as possible to restart the movement of cattle," she said in a post on X.

"Exports will resume starting in the last weeks of August through Agua Prieta, Sonora, followed shortly thereafter by two additional points in the state of Chihuahua."

The USDA said it has identified Sonora and Chihuahua as the lowest-risk Mexican states for New World screwworm due to their strong, well-established inspection programs and their geographic distance from southern Mexico, where most cases are concentrated.

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins said, "The closure of the Southern ports of entry for the last year has been a tough but necessary action to control the spread of NWS in Mexico and protect the American livestock industry."

The New World screwworm is a parasitic fly whose females lay eggs in open wounds or mucous membranes of any warm-blooded animal. The hatched larvae burrow into living flesh and can kill the host if left untreated.

The pest has pushed north through Central America. It appeared in June on Texas farms and in New Mexico, representing the first confirmed U.S. cases since 2017. One early case involved a 3-week-old calf in south Texas, with others found in goats, calves, and a dog.

Beef Industry In Turmoil

The United States typically imports more than 1 million head of cattle from Mexico each year, roughly 5 percent of the animals that go through American processing plants. Those calves usually head to U.S. feedlots for finishing, and prices spiked.

The decision also comes after domestic cattle supplies in the United States fell to a 75-year low. Beef prices rose to records this year, with meat processors struggling; Tyson Foods closed a large processing plant in Nebraska in January, and JBS said it would shutter one in Pennsylvania in mid-August.

The $100 billion U.S. beef industry contracted most sharply in Texas, the nation's top cattle state.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller called the reopening the right thing for ranchers and consumers, though he said it should have happened earlier.

"While I'm pleased to see this important trade relationship restored, the prolonged closure has already taken a toll on producers, disrupted supply chains and created uncertainty that could have lasting consequences for the cattle industry," Miller said.

He added that while action has moved in the right direction, "the pace and scale of the screwworm response have not gone far enough."

USDA has invested in sterile-fly production, which is the main tool used to push the pest back in past decades. It has renovated facilities in Mexico and activated dispersal sites in Texas.

Yet production remains under the hundreds of millions of sterile flies needed weekly to push the infestation south, as the pest entered the country despite the ban.

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