Rahul Gandhi demands PM’s apology over lathi charge, as Modi calls NEET leak a ‘grave sin’ 

Parliament’s Monsoon session opened this week with the government and the opposition arguing over two different pictures of the same crisis. One shows students beaten on the street. The other shows a Prime Minister calling the offence that brought them there a grave sin. 

An unstoppable force meets an immovable object 

The trouble began on Monday, when thousands of supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party, a satirical protest platform, tried to march towards Parliament from Jantar Mantar. They were demanding accountability for the NEET-UG paper leak, the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, and the unconditional release of activist Sonam Wangchuk.  

When protesters attempted to push past barricades, the police responded with teargas and a lathi charge. By the end of the day, over a hundred police personnel and more than sixty protesters had been injured. Journalist Samdish Bhatia said he and his crew were beaten despite showing valid press credentials, and several students alleged that men who did not appear to be police officers had joined in the assault. 

Crackdown is ‘un-Indian’ 

Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi called the crackdown ‘un-Indian’ and said the Prime Minister owed the country an apology, which had not come even a day later. He went further, describing Modi as the most anti-youth Prime Minister in the country’s history, and accused the government of first failing the country’s youth on exams and then turning on them for protesting.  

Gandhi, along with other opposition MPs, met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to demand a full parliamentary discussion on both the paper leak and the police action. Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal added his own charge, saying the crackdown on students was harsher than the brutality of British rule. 

Modi responds, but not to the students 

The government’s response came a day later, and from a different stage. Addressing the NDA Parliamentary Party’s customary Mangal Milan meeting, Prime Minister Modi called the NEET-UG leak a grave sin, and said his government had acted the moment it came to light. Thirteen people accused in the leak are already under arrest, he said, and he wants the strictest punishment the law allows to serve as a deterrent for anyone tempted to try this again.  

He also pointed to the re-examination, held soon after the leak surfaced, with results declared without delay, as proof the government had protected students’ interests even while pursuing the accused. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, briefing reporters after the meeting, said the Prime Minister had asked NDA allies to stay united through the session and appealed to the opposition to cooperate on matters that affect the country’s youth, whatever the political differences. 

Neither side has backed down. The CJP has said it will resume its march. The opposition wants a debate on the floor of the House. And the questions students first raised over a leaked exam paper have now become questions about who is answerable when a protest over that paper turns violent.