Published Jul 23, 2026 | 10:48 AM ⚊ Updated Jul 23, 2026 | 10:59 AM
Several groups held demonstration, against the Delhi Police's brutality against agitating students.
Synopsis: PM Modi has responded to the growing protests on Thursday morning while announcing the decision to set up fast-track courts. Rahul Gandhi, who had spoken of there being 152 paper leaks in the last 10 years, responded by laying the blame for the current mess squarely on the PM. Also, driving the people’s anger is the lack of jobs as underscored in a sobering stat.
With protests over the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) 2026 paper leak gathering momentum and gaining international attention, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that the government will set up fast-track courts to ensure “swift and stringent punishment”.
At 9:07 am, the Prime Minister’s handle took to X and announced that “Nothing is more important than the welfare and future of our youth!”
“We have decided to set up fast-track courts to ensure swift and stringent punishment for those involved in paper leaks. Have directed the concerned authorities and officials to take all necessary steps in this regard. This continues our series of steps for safeguarding the interests of students. Those who try to harm the future of our youth will not be spared,” the Prime Minister’s post on the platform read.
Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi reacted to the Prime Minister by noting that “You are the one who has harmed the future of our youth the most. You allowed and encouraged the total capture and destruction of our education system – and protected every person responsible for it.”
Rahul stressed that the students’ demands are clear, while listing them and implying that none of them had been met:
1. Sack Dharmendra Pradhan.
2. Apologise to the students.
3. Take action against those who assaulted them.
Also Read: To resign or not? Inside story of how Dharmendra Pradhan is holding on
The protesters at Jantar Mantar, while demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, had targeted the Prime Minister too for what they saw as his role in the paper leaks and for turning the force of the establishment on them.
“Jab Jab Modi Darta Hai, Police Ko Aage Karta Hai” (Whenever Modi is scared, he puts the police in front), read one of the placards, while another broke his name up as Murderer Of Democracy in India.
After the Delhi Police attacked the protesting students during the Sansad Chalo march on July 20, Rahul Gandhi and other Opposition leaders also joined the protest. Celebrities across India, including Prakash Raj, Salman Khan, Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Sonakshi Sinha and Rajkummar Rao, among others, came out in support of the protests.
“Protesting students are not terrorists, they are our future… action should be taken against all those responsible (for going after the students during the protests),” Rahul Gandhi had said on Wednesday, while stating that 152 paper leaks had happened in the last ten years and there have been zero convictions.
The Leader of the Opposition underlined that the numbers translated to more than one leak a month.
“Every month, lakhs of students are told that all the stress that you went through, you’re going to have to go through again,” he noted.
Rahul went on to add that “7.5 crore students and their families are affected by this (paper leak). These are middle-class and poor families. They put their hard-earned money into this.”
Besides the concerns over exams, the protests have also been driven by the lack of meaningful employment for graduates in India.
A recent BBC report had highlighted the grim statistic of barely 2.8 million out of five million graduates finding jobs every year in the country since 2004-05. And even among those who found employment, a lot of it is informal, it underlined.
Also Read: India’s students’ revolt has exposed BJP’s biggest political blind spot
(Edited by R Rajesh Kumar.)
