Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday (July 28, 2026) demanded accountability for the police action against students protesting the NEET-UG paper leak, accusing the Centre of responding to a democratic movement with force instead of addressing the concerns of aspirants.

Participating in the debate on the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, Ms. Vadra asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to explain who had authorised the use of force, including pellet guns and assault rifles, against protesting students.

“Were they terrorists?” she asked, saying that every lathi blow had damaged the government’s credibility more than it had injured the students. Recalling her visit to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Ms. Vadra said she had met the family of an injured student and argued that the country’s youth had begun losing faith in a system where dishonesty appeared to matter more than merit.

Ms. Vadra alleged that 152 examination papers had leaked over the past decade without a single “paper leak mafia” being punished. She also questioned the government’s education priorities, contrasting public spending on education with the enormous private expenditure incurred by families preparing students for competitive examinations.

‘Angle of heart’ jibe

Taking a swipe at the Prime Minister, Ms. Vadra said changing camera angles would not help win over Generation Z. “The Prime Minister needs to change the angle of his heart, not the angle of cameras,” she said.

Her remarks briefly triggered noisy scenes in the House after she made a controversial comment about the newly appointed Education Minister, Pralhad Joshi, prompting objections from Treasury Bench members. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju and Mr. Joshi responded before Speaker Om Birla directed that the remarks be expunged from the records.

Mr. Venugopal also pressed the government on the police crackdown, saying those responsible for the attacks on peaceful protesters “must be identified and held accountable because students protesting peacefully are not enemies of the state.”

PM needs to change angle of his heart, not angle of cameras: Priyanka in Lok Sabha

PM needs to change angle of his heart, not angle of cameras: Priyanka in Lok Sabha | Video Credit: The Hindu

“They are citizens of India, and the government must answer for treating the country’s young citizens so brutally,” he said.

He added that even Opposition leaders had faced police excesses during the protests, saying the treatment meted out to the Leader of the Opposition had been witnessed across the world. “In a democracy, you have to listen to everybody’s voice, but the Modi government is not ready to listen,” he said.

Beginning his speech by reading out a note left behind by Ankita Sangale, a 19-year-old NEET aspirant from Maharashtra who died by suicide on July 25 after missing the cut-off by 11 marks, Mr. Venugopal said the tragedy reflected the immense pressure faced by students. 

Citing National Crime Records Bureau data, he said student suicides had risen from 8,068 in 2014 to 14,488 at present. “This is not a statistic but an emergency,” he said, adding that failure in exams is now a distinct category of suicides and argued that the issue is no longer confined to one examination but reflects deeper problems in India’s education system.

Questioning an education model where “coaching has become indispensable, students have to approach courts for justice, protesters face police violence and degrees no longer guarantee jobs”, he called for structural reforms rather than piecemeal legislative changes.