NCP(SP)’s Supriya Sule demanded a JPC probe into the Public Examinations Bill, while Congress’s Priyanka Gandhi slammed the govt over police action on NEET-UG protestors, questioning the use of pellet guns and citing 152 paper leaks in 10 years.
Opposition Demands JPC, All-Party Meet on Exam Bill
Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Supriya Sule on Tuesday sought a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to examine the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill and said an all-party meeting should also be held to get everyone’s suggestions to improve the education sector.
Participating in the debate on the Bill in the Lok Sabha, Sule expressed concern over police action on protestors who were agitating against NEET-UG paper leak. “Two demands I have asked on behalf of our party: if you really want to save the system, form a JPC, put all our minds, call every stakeholder, and come up with a bill which is leak-proof. Let them call an all-party meeting, everyone’s suggestion…this bill is filled with a lot of internal contradictions,” Sule said.
“Second is a detailed enquiry of what happened all over India, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, wherever every child is hit,” she added. The NCP (SP) leader also took digs at the treasury benches over furore in Parliament during the debate.
Sule said she had come with expectations that “good things would come from and a message would go to the country that in this entire matter we are one, just like we all fought together at the time of the Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor”. She said there was a need of sensitive consideration to the demands of students.
The NCP(SP) leader also said that the BJP should not be under the impression that youth are with them. “The next generation is neither with them nor with us. Perhaps they should not remain under the same ‘delulu’ impression that they are with them…generation is with whom, we will get to know in the 2029 elections,” she said.
Priyanka Gandhi Slams Govt Over Police Action, Systemic Failures
‘Who Ordered Pellet Guns on Students?’: Congress
In her remarks during the debate on the bill, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra slammed the BJP government over police action on students protesting against NEET-UG paper leak in the national capital, asking “who gave the order to use pellet guns” and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah must give an answer.
Priyanka Gandhi accused the government of “hollowing out” the education system by “filling it with RSS pracharaks” and alleged there have been 152 paper leak incidents in last 10 years “but not one mafia has been punished”. The Congress leader accused the government of “over-centralisation” and said it forcibly created National Testing Agency, which conducts NEET examination.
Priyanka Gandhi referred to the use of AK-47 rifle during protests in Bihar and asked if the protesters were terrorists. “What was the need to unleash pellet guns and AK-47s on the country’s youth? Were they terrorists?…Who gave the order to use pellet guns?… Was it the Prime Minister? Was it the Home Minister? They must answer. The entire nation is asking. It is not just the Congress party; the entire nation is demanding an answer,” she said.
Siwan district administration in Bihar later said that the use of AK-47 during protest was unauthorised and inappropriate for public crowd-handling settings and the concerned constable had been suspended.
Accuses Govt of Hollowing Out Education System
The Congress leader alleged that the government has consistently weakened all employment-generating sectors. “The examination system itself has failed. There have been 152 paper leaks in the last decade. Crores of students have been affected, yet not a single culprit, not one member of the paper leak mafia has been punished,” she said.
“They have hollowed out our education system by filling it with RSS pracharaks. They further complicated matters by forcibly establishing the NTA and centralising the system. Instead of increasing year by year, the share of the education budget in the country’s total budget is actually declining,” she added.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh earlier in the day moved the Public Examinations Amendment Bill in the House for consideration and passing. (ANI)
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)