WWW.InDIAneXPReSS.coM Adding Culture to Milk ahmedabad, JULy 26, 2026 Mumbai to Shimla, meet the makers leading the artisanal cheese boom in India, wooing consumers with infusions of wild-foraged cumin, onion flowers, nuts and raisins LATe cITy 10+4 PAGeS ₹6.00 Musafir Cafe explores desire, ambition and why ordinary relationships deserve extraordinary storytelling screen D A I L y f R o M : A h M e D A b A D , c h A n D I G A R h , D e L h I , j A I P u R , K o L K A T A , L u c K n o W , M u M b A I , n A G P u R , P A T n A , P u n e , V A D o D A R A AfTer DAys Of DiGGinG heels in, eDUcATiOn minisTer sTePs DOwn; cJP cAlls Off PrOTesT JantarMantar isheard,Pradhan isout Business as Usual By EP UNNY inside pages 6, 3 new anti-paper leak Bill: special task force to proBe cases in 2 months as jantar mantar celeBrates, some at work: medical aid to cleaning site pradhan BroUght many meaningfUl reforms in edUcation: delhi cm Protesters celebrate after Union education minister dharmendra Pradhan announced his resignation, at Jantar mantar in new delhi on saturday. PRAVeen KhAnnA Will not let youth fall ‘We have done it,’ CJP founder breaks news at Opp may end House prey to confusion, says protest site, says youth will talk of jobs, future siege, keep heat on Govt over education reforms Pradhan; Pralhad Joshi sophiya mathew & Abhimanyu hazarika manoj c G & Asad rehman gets Education charge New Delhi, July 25 Jatin Anand, liz mathew, sophiya mathew & Divya A New Delhi, July 25 BRINGINGTOanendthemore than month-long student protest in the heart of the Capital that had captivated public attention and heated up politics, Union Education Minister DharmendraPradhanresigned Saturday, sparking wild celebrations at the Jantar Mantar protest venue. Asthegovernmentaccepted its other demands of no legal proceedings against the protesters and compensating the familiesofNEETaspirantswho endedtheirlivesafterthepaper leak in May, the Cockroach JantaParty,whichspearheaded the protest, called off the stir. According to a statement from the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi was assigned the Education Ministry in addition to his current portfolios of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and New and Renewable Energy. Asking supporters to leave the protest venue and return to theirhomes,CJPfounderAbhijeet Dipke said Pradhan’s resignation, their main demand, demonstrated the power of a united youth movement. “The world bows down, and one who happening today lThe Army willhost a wreathlaying ceremony at the Kargil War Memorial in Dras, Ladakh, to mark India's victory over Pakistan in 1999. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Army chief General Dhiraj Seth and Ladakh L-G V K Saxena will be among those attending the ceremony. Track This and more on www.indianexpress.com the world page 9 hoUthis fire missiles at saUdi araBia, target aramco dharmendra Pradhan announced his resignation in an open letter posted on X makesitbowisneeded,”hesaid. He listed the names of the students who died by suicide and said, “These are the children whohavereceivedjusticetoday.” Pradhan’s resignation and the end of the protest cleared thedecksforthegovernmentto return to Parliament Monday with a new Bill to ensure swift and stringent punishment to those involved in exam paper leaks.ThedraftBillwascleared by the Union Cabinet Friday, hoursafterPrimeMinisterNarendra Modi, in a midnight video post, announced the formation of fast-track courts and a tough new law. In an open letter announcinghisresignation—heposted it on X — Pradhan said, “We will not let the nation’s youth »cOnTinUeD On PAGe 2 FOR A moment, it did not register. Then Abhijeet Dipke, founderoftheCockroachJanta Party (CJP), sank to his knees, overcome by shock and joy, realising that Education MinisterDharmendraPradhanhad resigned. Rising to address students and volunteers who had spent 36 days at the protest site with him,Dipkesaid,“Wehavedone it. We have bloody done it.” Pradhan’s resignation was the central demand of the CJPled protest. “What did they say? Union ministers J P nadda and Jitendra singh with cJP’s saurav das and ashutosh ranka in new delhi, saturday. TAShI TobGyAL Thattherearenoresignationsin this government. For 36 days, every day they asked me this question. There won’t be resig- nations. Will there be resignations? These people won’t give resignations.Everyonetoldme.” He said Pradhan’s resignationdemonstratedthepowerof a united youth movement. “The world bows down, and one who makes it bow is needed,” he said, adding that the protest had secured “justice” for students who had died by suicide following the NEET paper leak. He said attempts to break their resolve had failed. “They were sitting in the rain. Police cut off the water supply, still you sat. They closed the police station,stillyousat.Theymade »cOnTinUeD On PAGe 2 New Delhi, July 25 WITH A beleaguered Dharmendra Pradhan resigning as the Union Education Minister, whichwasoneofthecentraldemands of the protesting students and youth as well as the Opposition parties, the signals emanatingfromavisiblyelated INDIA bloc Saturday was that theywouldcallofftheirsiegeof Parliament Monday, but will continue to raise issues related toreformsintheeducationsectorandallegedpolicehigh-handedness against the protesters. Leader of opposition rahul Gandhi addresses the media in new delhi, saturday. AnIL ShARMA Pradhan’s resignation has comeasashotinthearmforthe Opposition, which was reeling undersplitsandfloor-crossings »cOnTinUeD On PAGe 2 express special Triumph at ground zero: ‘We took his resignation, (he) didn’t give it’ what changed in 48 hrs? concerns over house washout, larger stir Tabshir shams, Pragynesh, Abhimanyu hazarika, mishal mussaddique, Kartikeya Bhattacharyya & swati Bhasin ritika chopra, Jatin Anand & shubhangi Khapre New Delhi, June 25 By 1 pm on Saturday, the loudest sound at Jantar Mantar was no longer of the chanting, but of the warnings. Againandagain,apoliceannouncement van stationed at the intersection of Jai Singh MargandTolstoyRoadrepeated the same message: “There are »cOnTinUeD On PAGe 2 Mumbai, New Delhi, July 25 a group of students, who were at Jantar mantar for more than 10 days, leave the venue after the cJP ended its protest, saturday. AbhInAV SAhA TILL JUST about 48 hours ago, theresignationofDharmendra Pradhan was not on the radar, according to top sources in the BJP and the government. Buttheassessmentonthree specific aspects seem to have prompted the action. One, the protestsgainedfurthermomentum in Delhi despite police ac- tion, and spread across many cities. Two, the government’s actions—fasttrackcourts,shifting of higher education secretary, a Bill with harsh measures to present paperleaks,andsacking of47NTAofficials—did not cut ice with protesters. Three, concerns that a prolonged confrontation could wash out the entire monsoon session of Parliament, jeopardisingthepoliticalcapital the government had spent building support for contentious measures such as delimitation and the Women's Reservation Bill. At the beginning of the week on Monday, a day after activist Sonam Wangchukwasremoved from Jantar Mantar and admittedtohospital,theassessment within the government was that protests would E. »cOnTinUeD On PAGe 2 l moTown sanand, LoGisTics hUb of bavLa amonG The worsT hiT as hiGhway shUT for second consecUTive day 40killedasGujaratreelsunderrainfury;Army&policerescueseveralstranded Kamal saiyed Surat, July 25 NEARLy 40 persons died in rain-related incidents across the state, the highest being in Valsad and Navsari which together reported 33 deaths till Saturday, largely caused by electrocutionordrowning.One death each was reported from Tapi and Surat districts in South Gujarat till Saturday, according to sources in the State Revenue Department. In Ahmedabad district, the Army and Gujarat Police personnel rescued several persons fromindustrialunitsandwarehouses even as the 60-km NH 47 connecting Ahmedabad to Rajkot,remainedclosedtotraffic till Bagodra for the second consecutive day because of floodrelateddamage. Thestate highway connecting the city to Viramgam through the auto hubs of Sanand and Mandal which was closed on Friday, opened late Saturday for heavy vehicles. This stretch sees the busiest commercial traffic and has developed as an industrial and logistics zone. The district police rescued 900 workers from the Gallops Industrial Park in Bavla, close to Sanand while more than 80 workers were rescued from an Amazon warehouse in a village in Bavla taluka by the Army. The flooding in the district is being attributed to excessive rainfall and water released from the Sabarmati River through the Vasna barrage in Ahmedabad. The river flows into the Gulf of Khambhat in the Arabian Sea through Dholka. Although rainfall eased in Ahmedabad city, the South Western suburbs including areas in Bopal, Ghuma, Sindhu BhavanRoad(SBR)andThaltej remained flooded. At several placessinkholeswerereported, including a party plot on SBR. Places such as the Hariom Villa in Bopal where Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel visited on Friday, continued to be under a foot-deep water when army personnel carry out rescue operations in ahmedabad’s Golden katar division on saturday. bhuPenDRA RAnA Ahmedabad The Indian Express visited on Saturday. Apart from South Gujarat, one death each was reported from Sanand and Dholka in Ahmedabad district and one eachfromAnand,andRadhanpur in Banaskantha district. Ten deaths were reported from Valsad due to rain-related incidents, while four missing complaints have been registered with different police stations in the district in the past couple of days. In Navsari district, 23 deaths have been reported in the last two days. A total of 33 dead bodies were recovered from both the districts in the past two days. Navsari Superintendent of Police(SP)RahulPateltoldThe Indian Express, “We have recorded 23 deaths and a few missing complaints in the past couple of days. While nearly 20000 people have been rescued and shifted to different places by district administration. The highest number of deaths have been reported from Gandevi taluka. The reason such vast devastation took place in Navsari district is that the rainwater from Dang, Tapi and Surat district reaches into three rivers, Ambika, Kaveri and Purna, as a result of which allthesethreeriversoverflowed and water entered into the lowlying areas on the banks.” »cOnTinUeD On PAGe 2