Dharmendra Pradhan's daughter deactivates IG, LinkedIn as protesters demand her father's resignation, target her university page
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Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan
Naimisha Pradhan, daughter of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, deactivated her Instagram account after online backlash over her overseas education amid protests demanding her father’s resignation over alleged exam irregularities.
Amid calls for resignation, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's daughter Naimisha Pradhan has deactivated her Instagram and LinkedIn account after being flooded with comments demanding her father's resignation. While many have criticised those who dragged the minister's daughter into the protest against him, others questioned why he chose to give her daughter overseas education while he is the Education Minister.
WION could not find Naimisha Pradhan's Instagram or LinkedIn account. Naimisha Pradhan completed her Master of Laws (LLM) from The Fletcher School at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, United States, in 2023. Following her graduation, she joined the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) as a Senior Associate. Below is a screenshot of her LinkedIn account before it got deactivated and the message shows when her Instagram account is searched. Another post by USISPF page on LinkedIn shows her standing with a group of people in a roundtable discussion with represetatives of Indian government's Ministry of Mines.
People also took their anger to the official Instagram page of Tufts University, where they tagged Naimisha Pradhan and posted comments criticising her father Pradhan. Some accused him of failing to take responsibility for alleged irregularities in competitive examinations and claimed that force was used against protesting students instead of addressing their demands. Others alleged that students had died amid the crisis and urged the university to uphold values of accountability, integrity and justice. Several comments also directly linked the minister's daughter to the controversy, with some accusing her father of making India “illiterate” and blaming his alleged “carelessness” for student deaths.
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Many on social media said that it is wrong to target Dharmendra Pradhan’s daughter online because she is not a public official responsible for the government decisions being criticised. While questioning the Education Minister’s policies, handling of exam-related controversies and demanding his resignation are legitimate forms of democratic expression, targeting his daughter simply because of her family relationship amounts to personal harassment and collective punishment.
Dharmendra Pradhan was once a student leader
Notably, Dharmendra Pradhan too was a student leader who led protest against paper leak. Pradhan joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) as a student activist in 1983 while studying at Talcher College in Odisha and went on to become the President of the Talcher College Students' Union in 1985. Within 10 years, he rose up the ranks and was appointed the National Secretary of the ABVP in 1995. Two years later, in 1997, he, as a student leader took to streets of Odisha leading a massive protest against state-level question paper leak and examination irregularity scandal. He led a rally of approximately 1,500 students directly to the State Secretariat in Bhubaneswar. He was injured too.
Years later, when protesters are demanding his resignation, he reacted and slammed Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who staged a protest on Jul 21 outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi's residence. He accused Gandhi of “exploiting students” and said that “we owe the students answers, reforms and accountability.”
