AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Monday, 20 July 2026, sharply condemned the reported use of lathi charges and tear gas against student demonstrators, accusing the Modi government of attacking the country's youth instead of fixing the examination system.

In a post on X, Kejriwal wrote: 'हमारे बच्चों पर लाठी चार्ज कर रहे हैं, आँसू गैस के गोले छोड़े जा रहे हैं।' ('Lathi charges are being carried out on our children, tear-gas shells are being fired.') He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared to have 'directly attacked the country's youth' rather than reforming the education and examination system, and warned that young Indians would 'not tolerate Modi's arrogance at all.'

Context

The post comes amid a broader wave of student unrest across India linked to concerns over examination integrity, particularly around centralised entrance tests. Opposition leaders, including those from the Aam Aadmi Party, have accused the central government of responding to student grievances with police force rather than systemic reform. The research background flags that the specific lathi-charge and tear-gas incident referenced on 20 July 2026 is yet to be independently confirmed.

Kejriwal, a former Chief Minister of Delhi who built his political identity around public education reform, has consistently positioned AAP as the party of students and teachers. His intervention on this issue follows a pattern of AAP challenging the BJP-led central government on education governance.

Policy Backdrop

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, approved by the Union Cabinet in July 2020, replaced the 1986 education policy and introduced sweeping changes including a four-year undergraduate programme and restructured school curricula. Critics have argued that implementation has been uneven and that the policy's rollout has coincided with growing student anxiety over competitive examinations.

Centralised entrance examinations such as NEET and JEE have faced repeated allegations of paper leaks in recent years, triggering demonstrations in multiple states. Opposition parties have used these incidents to argue that the government's priorities lie with administrative expansion rather than ensuring a fair and transparent examination process for millions of aspirants.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary stakeholders are crores of exam aspirants — students preparing for NEET, JEE, and other centralised tests — whose futures depend on the integrity and smooth functioning of the national examination framework. Their families, coaching institutions, and state governments managing law and order around protest sites are all directly affected.

Kejriwal's statement is also directed at a political constituency: young, first-time voters and urban middle-class families who have historically been responsive to AAP's education-focused messaging. By framing the government's response as one of 'arrogance' rather than accountability, he is seeking to consolidate opposition sentiment ahead of any upcoming electoral cycle.

What's Next

Attention will now turn to the Ministry of Education for any official response to the protests and whether new examination reform measures will be announced. The next session of Parliament is expected to see opposition pressure on education-related legislation, with AAP and other parties likely to raise the issue on the floor. How the government chooses to respond — through dialogue with students or continued law-and-order measures — will shape the political narrative around youth and education in the months ahead.