Lakhimpur Kheri, 26 July

The grieving father of a 21-year-old NEET aspirant who died by suicide in Uttar Pradesh's Kheri district on Sunday lamented that his son was not alive to witness the 37-day-long protest that ended with Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation as Union education minister.

Though the Centre has accepted the Cockroach Janata Party’s demand to provide compensation to the families of 21 NEET students who took their own lives, Anup Mishra said such an announcement can do little to fill the void created by the death of his son, Ritik.

When the alleged NEET-UG 2026 exam paper leak surfaced, Ritik was heartbroken, as it was his third attempt, Mishra said. He added that the government’s decision to cancel the exams left him in utter despair, and he took his own life on 14 May, a day before the re-test was announced.

Speaking over the phone from a hospital in Lucknow, where he is attending to his ailing wife, the 46-year-old father said had Pradhan resigned earlier, the police crackdown on young protesters on July 20 at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar could have been avoided.

Mishra praised the resolve of the country's youth for drawing the attention of the entire nation to the existing examination system, saying it was their perseverance that forced Pradhan to step down. “If he had tendered his resignation earlier, such brutality upon our young generation could have been averted.

The young generation, with their firm determination and unwavering will, forced the government to restructure the educational system for future generations. However, seeing the police brutality upon students who were protesting peacefully at Jantar Mantar was heartbreaking. Theseyoung people were fighting for nothing but a transparent system" he said.

Reacting to the broader impact of the movement, Mishra said, "Its rather painful to see that my son is no longer with us to witness these developments; however, this agitation would benefit other youths across the country."

"If this movement brings positive improvements in the examination system and prevents students from depression and families from such tragedy as we have experienced, we would feel somewhat consoled."

On assurance of maximum monetary compensation to the families of the 21 NEET aspirants who died by suicide, he said, "Any compensation could not fill the gap that his son's death had created. The pain, the stress, and the grief our family of me, my wife, and our elder daughter has experienced, no amount of money can compensate," he said.