Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday, 21 July launched a sharp attack on the government over police action against students demonstrating against repeated paper leaks in competitive examinations, asserting that the nation's youth deserved respect — not batons and tear gas. Her remarks came from the Parliament complex in New Delhi, as student protests over the NEET-UG and other exam irregularities continued to intensify across the country.

What Priyanka Gandhi Said

Speaking to reporters, Priyanka underscored the immense personal and financial cost borne by exam aspirants. She described how millions of young Indians spend years in rigorous preparation, with families taking on heavy loans for coaching, only to see their prospects derailed by systemic failures and recurring leaks.

'The Prime Minister is the leader of this country. This country belongs to its youth. This Parliament belongs to them,' she said. 'The least he can do is listen to them, call them, and understand their pain.'

She demanded the immediate resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, invoking the principle of ministerial accountability. Citing precedents where ministers had stepped down over major public failures — including railway accidents — she questioned why the same standard was not being applied in the present crisis.

The Political Escalation

When asked about Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi's characterisation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as 'anti-youth,' Priyanka went further, accusing the government of being 'anti-youth, anti-poor, and anti-farmer' — drawing a direct line between the handling of student protests and the earlier response to farmers' demonstrations.

She noted that Rahul had been consistently raising the exam-leak issue in Parliament, yet successive governments had failed to deliver lasting structural solutions. Investigations into past leaks, she argued, typically resulted in action only against junior officials, while those at the top escaped accountability.

Systemic Failures at the Core

Priyanka's intervention comes amid a broader crisis of confidence in India's examination and recruitment infrastructure. The NEET-UG controversy — involving alleged paper leaks affecting hundreds of thousands of medical aspirants — has become a flashpoint, drawing opposition parties, student unions, and civil society groups into a widening demand for reform.

Critics argue that the pattern of leaks, followed by investigations that rarely reach the top, reflects deep institutional rot. This is not the first time competitive exam integrity has come under fire; similar controversies have surfaced in state-level recruitment exams over the past several years, suggesting the problem is structural rather than isolated.

What Priyanka Is Demanding

Beyond the ministerial resignation, Priyanka called for an end to the use of force against peaceful protesters, greater transparency in the examination process, and the introduction of stricter mechanisms to prevent future leaks. She urged the government to take concrete steps to rebuild trust in India's public examination and recruitment systems.

With opposition parties uniting behind student demands and protests showing no signs of abating, pressure on the government to respond substantively — rather than through policing — is mounting by the day.