Guwahati: Former Human Resource Development minister Murli Manohar Joshi on Thursday criticised the use of force against protesting students, saying their legitimate demands should be heard with sympathy and that students should be treated as “our children”.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 21st FICCI Higher Education Summit, Joshi said the use of batons was not an appropriate way to address student grievances.

“Reasonable or legitimate demands of students should always be heard and should be heard with a great deal of sympathy. This method of using batons is not appropriate. You can never find a solution this way. If there are problems, listen to them. They are our children,” the BJP leader said when asked about the ongoing protests.

Drawing an analogy with the relationship between parents and children, Joshi said students should be dealt with in a similar manner when they raise concerns.

“When a child complains to father saying you had promised that you will get me so and so thing, the father tells why he wasn’t able to fulfil the promise and assures that it will be done soon … or does he shoo away the child? Similarly the students are our children and should be dealt with in the same manner,” he said.

Asked about the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, Joshi, a Padma Vibhushan awardee, said it was too early to assess its impact as implementation is still underway.

“NEP 2020 is new … It has not been in place for very long. The implementation is still underway, so what can we say about it at this stage? It is only the beginning. What its results would be, we would know later,” he said.

Joshi had raised similar concerns two months ago after the leak of the NEET question paper triggered widespread protests, eventually resulting in the resignation of then education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

At the time, Joshi said the concerns of students regarding the examination system were genuine and should be addressed with empathy.

“It is painful to see young students from different parts of the country assembled for days on the streets of New Delhi. Their anxieties and concerns regarding the examination system are genuine and must be handled with empathy and a desire to find a lasting solution,” he said.

He had also urged authorities not to treat the protests solely as a law-and-order issue.

“I fervently hope that this is not treated merely as a law-and-order issue to be tackled through the use of force. It is very painful to see that even young girls were brutally mishandled. Such use of force shall alienate large sections of Indian society from the national goal of Viksit Bharat,” Joshi added.