The 35-day-long walkout from the Ministry of Education by Dharmendra Pradhan at Jantar Mantar has neither brought this fateful episode to a close nor deceased the issue of India's largest testing scandal in many years. In fact, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has set its mouthpiece Saamana to say that his resignation comes as the beginning of the reckoning; not the end. The Thackeray editorial this week branded the resignation the government's “first political casualty” in this case and its “funny money” has become “a laughing stock” during the past several weeks as the students have camped outside Parliament demanding accountability, it said in its editorial bluntly.

The catalyst for all this was the irksome. Prior to the students sitting for the NEET-UG on May 3, allegations surfaced that the Chemistry paper was tampered with in the entrance exam, which determines admission to medical colleges across the country. The Central Bureau of Investigation that investigated the matter has stated that coaching operators had chalked out questions, provided answer options and written the correct answers in the private coaching sessions and that the answers written by the candidates on the question paper were identical to that in their question paper almost word for word. This is not an urban legend that is floating around on social media, it's what the investigators put on record. The National Testing Agency (NTA), which was already burdened with the controversy surrounding the 2024 NEET, was again caught up in the storm, with repercussions extending further up the chain. IDG Subodh Kumar Singh was dismissed from his duties and put on compulsory wait while Pradeep Singh Kharola was additionally appointed as the IDG. The CBSE Chairman and Secretary were also shifted a few days later following complaints about its online marking system and an inquiry committee was established under the CBSE's Capacity Building Commission to look into its procurement.

All of these reshuffleings failed to please the students on the streets. Initially, it was sporadic protests by the National Students' Union of India (NSUI) and Leftist organisations like AISA and JNU Students' Union, which eventually brought the political elite into the fray. Uddhav Thackeray & Aaditya Thackeray, along with Raj Thackeray's son Amit and groups such as the Cockroach Janta Party made Jantar Mantar the centre of youth agitation, which lasted for more than a month. Delhi Police intervened in a pre-dawn operation to arrest the activist Sonam Wangchuk, a move that Saamana called "like a raid" in the strongest terms, as the strike passed its 20th day. The government's use of the National Security Act in Delhi to crackdown on the protests only made it seem like it is more of a civil liberty issue than one of exam cheating. However, when Prime Minister Modi did come up with the subject, he did so in a tweet on social media, promising quick-track courts and promising the nation that no one playing with their students' lives will be spared, leaving the question of the consequences for his own Education Minister open. In days, Pradhan too stepped down, blaming the anti-national elements, but Saamana denounced this as a ploy by the government to quell the scuffles in the name of national unity and keeping out the anti-national elements from exploiting the situation.

Reaction from the opposition has been mixed from victorious to dubious. Sharad Pawar said it was a triumph of Indian youths' collective strength. Priyanka Gandhi called it as a testament to the power of young people to not be silenced for long. Groups that were on a direct negotiation with the government saw it as a sign of good faith from the government to continue negotiations until the resignation was available. But the UBT's case not a frivolous one is that replacing a minister is not enough to solve a problem that has been around for over a decade now, even since the NTA's inception, and that putting any minister in that role doesn't explain how a body which hosts one of the most significant examinations in the country operates virtually without checks or balances.

It also has a business side to it, which is often overlooked. The coaching industry in India is largely focused on exam preparation such as NEET, JEE, and UPSC tests, and is now estimated to be between fifty and sixty thousand crore rupees annually, with estimates of a hundred and fifty thousand crore by the end of the decade. There is an acute shortage of MBBS and BDS seats, with a gap of four times more than the number of seats; families are forced to spend from forty thousand to two and a half lakh rupees on coaching, with the money often borrowed. Each leak, each cancelled paper, each re-test is not only a loss of government credibility, it's a loss of real dollars for households, and a year of a youth's life for many. But that economic hardship is what has prevented the demonstrations from dying down like so many education and social issues have in the past.

The resignation will tell us more about what the government is up to than the resignation itself. Will there be structural change in the way the NTA is governed, independent oversight of question paper custody and consequences for the private coaching networks involved by CBI? Or will a new minister come into a system with no reform, and wait until people have their eyes turned elsewhere, as they typically do? The bet of Shiv Sena UBT is on the latter. It's difficult to see how they're to be blamed for being wary, given the trend of the past ten years.