new delhi, Aug 7
Senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan on Friday dismissed the temporary charge of the education portfolio handed to Union Minister Pralhad Joshi as a mere stopgap, urging the Centre to appoint a leader of national stature capable of connecting with Gen Z and fixing the “broken” system.
Chavan, in a post on X, claimed no current cabinet member fits the role and added that the Congress and Gen Z would not accept Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s move to Delhi for the post, given the involvement of several coaching institutes in the state in the NEET paper leak. “The historic agitation by the CJP and Gen Z has claimed its first scalp: that of the Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan — a landmark moment.
The PM has given a temporary charge to Pralhad Joshi, who already holds three portfolios and now juggles a fourth.
“This is clearly a stopgap till the monsoon session of Parliament. The prime minister will soon have to name a full-time Education Minister — someone of national stature who can connect with Gen Z, fix the broken educational system, and push for increased funding for education. I don’t see any such person in the current Cabinet,” he wrote.
Referring to the speculation about bringing Fadnavis to Delhi for the role, Chavan stated that neither Gen Z nor the Congress will accept him.
“The 2026 NEET leak implicated several Maharashtra-based coaching institutes and paper-setters, and Fadnavis is also the state’s Home Minister — hardly confidence-inspiring. Whether any ruling-party politicians in Maharashtra were also involved is something only a full SIT probe can establish,” he charged.
An educationist or a bureaucrat, perhaps a former vice-chancellor, was a possible choice, he said, alleging that the prime minister has packed the higher education system with RSS loyalists, most of them mediocre.
“Then perhaps someone from the corporate world. Nandan Nilekani?” he remarked in the post.
