Guwahati: Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi intensified his attack on the Centre on Wednesday during a press conference at Indira Bhawan in New Delhi over the ongoing Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protests against the NEET paper leak. He alleged that 152 examination papers had leaked over the past decade without a single conviction. Gandhi also criticised the police action against student protesters, reiterated his demand for Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, and called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apologise to students over the government’s handling of the issue.
His remarks came as leaders of several Opposition parties, dressed in black, staged a protest outside Parliament seeking the resignation of both Pradhan and Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the alleged crackdown on students. The protest came a day after Rahul Gandhi and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were briefly detained while staging a sit-in outside the Prime Minister’s residence, and were later released that night.
Questioning the treatment of the protesters, Gandhi asked why peaceful students were being met with force by security personnel.
“The question is why is this happening to students. What exactly have they done? Thousands of them. To have security forces aiming weapons at them. What have they done? They are protesting peacefully. They are asking for what this country owes them,” Gandhi said.
Calling the issue a national crisis, Gandhi said students were simply demanding a fair and reliable education system. He alleged that repeated examination paper leaks had eroded public confidence and placed enormous psychological and financial burdens on millions of families.
Referring to data on examination leaks, Gandhi claimed that there had been 152 paper leaks over the past decade, averaging more than one every month. He further alleged that no one had been convicted in connection with these incidents.
“About 7.5 crore students and their families are affected. These are middle-class and poor families who invest their hard-earned money in their children’s education. Yet there have been zero convictions in the last 10 years,” he said.
Gandhi argued that the crisis extends beyond examination irregularities, saying young people face shrinking employment opportunities even after clearing competitive exams.
He claimed that manufacturing, entrepreneurship and corporate employment opportunities were declining, while government jobs had become the only viable option for many aspirants. However, he alleged that even this pathway had become increasingly inaccessible because of repeated paper leaks and administrative failures.
The Congress leader announced his party’s complete support for the students’ movement and outlined three key demands.
The first was the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, whom Gandhi accused of failing to safeguard the education system.
“The students are demanding the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan, who has failed as Education Minister. He is incapable of running this system,” Gandhi said.
His second demand was accountability for those responsible for the alleged police action against protesting students.
“Every single person who raised their finger against students, those who ordered and executed it, must be held accountable,” he said.
The third demand was directed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with Gandhi calling on him to publicly apologise to students over the handling of the paper leak issue.
“The man who is running this system should apologise. PM Modi must apologise to students,” Gandhi said.
Explaining why Opposition leaders had marched towards the Prime Minister’s residence earlier, Gandhi said they did so in solidarity with protesting students after their request for a discussion on the issue in Parliament was not accepted.
“We felt that if the youth are on the streets, the Opposition should be too. We requested a discussion, but it was not allowed. The issue was ignored,” he said.
Gandhi also claimed that Indian families collectively spend almost as much on NEET preparation as the Union government allocates for education, arguing that the scale of private expenditure reflects the immense pressure on students.
Concluding his remarks, Gandhi said the Opposition wanted the national focus to remain on students’ concerns, including paper leaks, alleged police excesses and the need for reforms in the education system, rather than what he described as attempts to divert attention from the issue.