‘Modi govt’s handling of student protests amounts to cowardice and wanton cruelty’: Sonia Gandhi

NEW DELHI: Amid the ongoing protests over the NEET paper controversy, Congress parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi has said that the central government has met peaceful student protests with “cowardice and wanton cruelty”, and has treated the country’s youth “as enemies of the nation” rather than “as inheritors of the future”.

In an editorial opinion writen in The Hindu, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi urged the Centre to halt the police crackdown, stating that “these are our sons and daughters, our young men and women.

The piece singles out the July 20 parliament march as “a day of infamy” when Delhi Police and Central Armed Police Forces allegedly used lathicharges and tear gas against protesters, injuring many, including some heading home. It calls on the government to halt the crackdown and engage in dialogue instead.

“For the last few weeks, peaceful protests by young students all over India against examination paper leaks and the general decay in the education system have been gathering momentum. Their demands have been straightforward and to the point: accountability from the Government of India and education reform. The Narendra Modi government has responded to their courage with cowardice and wanton cruelty, treating them not as inheritors of the future but as enemies of the nation. On July 20, 2026, a day of infamy, the Delhi Police and the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) sought to suppress them with uncalled-for violence, using brutal lathicharges and tear gas. Scores of peaceful protesters have been injured. Even students heading back home were not spared, as lathis rained down on their backs and heads,” Sonia Gandhi wrote.

“The Modi government has not just degraded India’s education landscape but has also made a habit of acting with utter impunity, supreme self-delusion, and abject insensitivity. India’s students have called the Modi regime’s bluff. It is our moral, political, and constitutional… pic.twitter.com/DM4n1zCZd3

— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) July 24, 2026

She said the nation has seen some of the “most depressing visuals of youth” in the protest, claiming that bodies were “scarred by pellets, the use of which would undoubtedly have been approved by the Union Home Minister himself.”

Escalating her criticism of the Centre, she claimed that instead of reaching out to the students, the “repressive power of the state” was unleashed on them. “This can neither be forgiven or forgotten,” she said.

“The Modi government routinely uses violence in preference to dialogue. The pattern is clear, from farmers to activists. But this week, even a government as insensitive as the one that has set new standards of authoritarian governance, sank to a new low,” Sonia Gandhi said in the editorial peice.

Sonia Gandhi argued that the government has retreated from funding public education, citing a claimed 50 per cent cut in the school-education share of the total budget and a 33 per cent cut for higher education.

“Can anyone see the sense in such an absurd retreat? Over the last 12 years, the Modi government has shut down nearly one lakh public schools while overseeing the opening of 43,000 private schools — a large chunk of which are run by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which, along with its affiliate organisations, incidentally presides over the largest private school network in India. In higher education, the University Grants Commission has cut its grants to universities and pushed them to take loans at high rates of interest. To repay them, public universities have resorted to raising their fees”, she added.

She said that due to the fees, students are aware of how much their families have invested in their academic and professional success, and the “desperation of our students is a direct consequence of the privatisation and commercialisation of education”, which she claimed are the “consequence of the Narendra Modi government’s policies”.

The piece criticised the shift from university- and state-set exams to a centralised National Testing Agency (NTA) framework, including NEET, describing the NTA as a “hapless, chronically-understaffed body” and reliant on private contractors with limited academic credibility. It cites a figure of 152 alleged paper leaks nationally over the past 12 years, including nine attributed to the NTA since its 2017 founding.

“The traditional practice of universities and States setting their own examinations to cater to their unique needs was replaced by a centralised, National Testing Agency (NTA)-conducted examinations such as the Common University Entrance Test (CUET). The NTA itself is a hapless, chronically-understaffed body which relies entirely on an army of private contractors to conduct its examinations. It is also well known that the paper-setters, translators, and experts engaged by the NTA are not renowned academics from India’s premier institutions but are, for the most part, mediocre individuals with political affiliations”, she said.

She further linked the protests to high youth unemployment, citing an approximate 40% rate among graduates in recent years, alongside intense competition for limited job openings. “High-quality, well-paid job opportunities after graduation are a rarity today, partly due to the growing monopolisation of the economy. Unemployment rates for our young graduates have been consistently high, averaging about 40% in the last few years,” she said.

The piece further alleged politically motivated appointments of vice-chancellors and faculty, arguing the National Education Policy 2020 was implemented without adequate parliamentary consultation, and claimed that the Education Minister dismissed the recommendations of a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education.

“The NTA itself was never brought to Parliament and remains a society that was set up by the Union Cabinet without any accountability mechanisms. The Education Minister infamously displayed his own contempt for accountability by publicly dismissing the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education’s recommendations to strengthen the NTA, simply because it had members of the Opposition in it,” the peice said.

She described the police response to the protests as unprecedented, and states that Indian students “have called the Modi regime’s bluff,” framing protection of the younger generation’s interests as a “moral, political, and constitutional duty.”

“The student protests are a natural consequence of these interrelated forces: today’s bleak education landscape, which evokes only hopelessness, and the Modi government’s trademark arrogance and unwillingness to be accountable or constructive. The brutality perpetrated by the police personnel functioning under the direct authority of the Union Home Minister on student protesters is hardly unprecedented for this regime,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on Friday said its protest at Jantar Mantar will continue until the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, even as activist Sonam Wangchuk ended his 26-day hunger strike following a written assurance from the Union Government on the NEET examination issue and systemic reforms. (ANI)