Mumbai | Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray has hailed youth protests seeking removal of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan as "oxygen to democracy" and called the Cockroach Janata Party’s agitation a reflection of the failure of both the government and the Opposition.

It is commendable that people have no fear of jail or guns and this is "dangerous" for the ruling party, Thackeray said in an interview to Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, the executive editor of party mouthpiece 'Saamana'.

Pradhan resigned as Union Education Minister on Saturday following an unprecedented youth-led movement spearheaded by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) that galvanised lakhs of people over irregularities in exams and the NEET paper leak.

The agitation called by CJP, founded by Abhijit Dipke, snowballed into massive nationwide protests over the last few weeks, demanding Pradhan's resignation and reforms in the education sector.

"These protests have given oxygen to democracy which was almost dying," Thackeray said in the interview given before Pradhan's resignation and published in Saamana on Sunday.

Thackeray also questioned the absence of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) from the protests.

"CJP's protest is not only a failure of the ruling party but also of the Opposition. I had mentioned this sometime back...the country has lost trust in politicians," he said.

The country is being shown only a carrot, but it has got nothing in reality, the former Maharashtra chief minister claimed.

The outburst in the form of protests by the youth was not just about NEET alone; it was an explosion of the betrayal and discontent of the last 12 years, and it is very fervent, he opined.

"From Delhi to Mumbai, (I) have realised that people have moved beyond fear. Till now people were kept at gunpoint, but now they shrugged fear for their life and have hit the streets," Thackeray said.

Slamming the BJP-led Centre, he claimed the government has completely failed. "(They have) completely destroyed the country," the Sena (UBT) leader charged.

Labelling the youth as cockroach is their insult, he added.