Pralhad Joshi Education Minister: As soon as Dharmendra Pradhan resigned after the NEET-UG controversy, only one question started being raised in the entire country, 'Who will be handed over the command of the Education Ministry now?' When PM Modi gave additional charge of this ministry to his senior cabinet minister Prahlad Joshi, many people were shocked. A question arose in the minds of many people that why was the minister who was already handling Food and Consumer Affairs and Renewable Energy suddenly made the boss of Shastri Bhawan (Education Ministry)? Political experts are not considering this as a random decision. He believes that PM Modi has a very big and solid gameplan behind this. Let us understand the '3 layer strategy' of the government, under which PM Modi has fielded his biggest 'crisis manager'...
Right now the monsoon session of Parliament is going on and the opposition is completely angry over the issue of NEET paper leak. The government knew that if a new or less experienced minister sat on this chair, it would be difficult to face the questions of the opposition in Parliament. This is where Prahlad Joshi's strong experience comes in handy. Prahlad Joshi is an old player of Parliament. He has been the Parliamentary Affairs Minister of the country from 2019 to 2024. He knows how to handle the situation when there is an uproar in Parliament. He has no match in responding to the sharp attacks of the opposition and leading the debate in both the Houses (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha). The government has not just chosen an education minister, but has also created a strong shield to defend the government in Parliament.
Prahlad Joshi's image is that of a minister who cleans up the mess in the system by staying behind the scenes without making any noise. He also currently holds the Ministry of 'Consumer Affairs'. The government is now looking at more than 24 lakh students of the country and their parents as 'consumers of the system', who should not be cheated. With the arrival of the new boss, two major changes are going to take place in NTA (National Testing Agency).
1. Joshi's first big target is to change the entire structure of NTA. Now the examinations will be rapidly shifted to CBT (Computer Based Testing) so that the chances of paper leak are eliminated.
2. The responsibility of implementing the recently enacted strict anti-paper leak laws will now be on his shoulders. Those committing mistakes will be directly threatened with jail and heavy fines.
When there is such a big controversy in a ministry, even the old good work comes to a halt. PM Modi did not want the country's New Education Policy (NEP 2020) and other big projects of higher education to get stalled due to the NEET controversy. Prahlad Joshi is considered a disciplined administrator. His job will be to ensure that the disputes remain resolved in their own right, but the routine decisions and reforms related to the schools, colleges and universities of the country do not stop at all. He is an expert in coordinating between the central and state governments.
