Opposition slams police action against protestors
New Delhi: After six days of stalemate, a discussion on the anti-paper leak bill began on Tuesday in Lok Sabha with the government describing it as a reaffirmation of ruling dispensation’s commitment to safeguard the welfare of students but Opposition hit back over the lathicharge on protestors, saying every blow on them hurt the government’s prestige more than the backs of the youth.
Initiating the debate on the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, Union Minister of State for PMO Jitendra Singh said the Narendra Modi government finished an unaccomplished task to bring a law to prevent examination malpractices in 2024.
“Incidents of paper leaks have taken place in various states ruled by different parties… The anti-paper leak bill is a reaffirmation of the government’s commitment to safeguard the welfare of students and youth. The amendment… (is being) brought to make the law more stringent,” Singh said.
The Opposition has been raking up the NEET paper leak issue since the monsoon session began on July 20. As a result, no legislative business could be taken up in Lok Sabha until Monday, except for the introduction of two bills.
Singh introduced the bill on Monday, days after student protests over the NEET fiasco led to Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation as education minister. The legislation provides for stricter punishment of up to 10 years in jail and a heftier fine of Rs 50 lakh for paper leaks.
Attacking the government for the way it handled the student protests, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to change his “dil ka angle” instead of camera angles if he wants to win over the Gen Z. Her sharp barb came over Modi’s Instagram outreach to student protestors last week.
Gandhi also slammed the government over the lathicharge on students, saying every ‘lathi’ blow on any boy or girl, hurt the government’s prestige more than the backs of the students.
“Why was it necessary to fire tear gas shells at students, to rain lathis on them? Why was it necessary to humiliate young girls by tearing their clothes, to have them beaten mercilessly? Why was it necessary to fire pellet guns and AK-47s at the country’s youth? Are they terrorists,” the Congress general secretary asked.
BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj strongly defended the legislation and accused the Opposition of displaying “selective outrage” over examination paper leaks, saying such incidents also happened during the Congress-led UPA regime.
She asserted that the Modi government had undertaken structural reforms to strengthen the examination system.
The NDA MPs, including Swaraj, while wholeheartedly supporting the bill, tried to speak in the “language” spoken by the Gen-Z – the key force behind the 36 days protest led by the Cockroach Janta Party.
Supporting the bill, Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde said there is a need to change the system of holding this exam on a specified day only.
