The Brutal Assault on the Students

 

The Brutal Assault on the Students

The Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) was founded by Abijeet Dipke, in response to a derogatory remark by the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, comparing the jobless youngsters to cockroaches during a court hearing.  Dipke returned from the US, and began a sit-in-protest with his supporters at Jantar Mantar, New Dehi, on June 20,2026, demanding the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation and accountability for the NEET paper leak that ruined the future of nearly 2.3 million students.

 

Sonam Wangchuk, a well-known educationist and environmentalist, joined the protest. He went on an indefinite higher strike from June 28, endorsing the demands of the CJP.  He was forcefully removed on July 18 from the site at the Jantar Mantar and admitted to a government’s Safdarjung Hospital. He didn’t give up the fast.  On the 23^rd day of the fast July 20, as announced earlier by the CJP, thousands of students supporting a call for Sansad Chalo   were marching towards the Parliament House. The monsoon session of the Parliament began that day. The protesters were marching peacefully, and when they tried to break the barricades erected by the Police they were lathi charged.  And what followed was shocking and highly condemnable. 

 

The Police resorted to lathi charge, used teargas, pellet guns, and the unarmed protesters were thrashed, turning the national capital into a battlefield, with nearly 2,000 police personnel and 20 companies of paramilitary deployed. Many policemen and students were injured in the crackdown, and admitted to hospital. The protesters were venting their anger and frustration. They see no future for them in today’s India. The brutal assault on the students is unpardonable. Their constitutional democratic right to protest was crushed.

 

Thousands of students protesting against the government’s inability to conduct public examinations in a credible manner were met not with dialogue but with brutal police assault. The protesters gathered peacefully to demand accountability and the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan. Uncertainty over examinations, repeated paper leaks and cancellation of examinations, and the erosion of confidence in the examination system have made the youth anxious and worried about their future. Instead of addressing their concerns with empathy, the government has chosen to stand firmly behind the minister responsible for the mental trauma caused to the students and their parents. Modi’s recent birthday greeting praising Dharmendra Pradhan’s performance and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s assertion that resignations are alien to the BJP reinforce the impression that political solidarity takes precedence over public accountability. How is such a corrupt and incompetent minister so sacrosanct that he can’t be asked to resign or sacked? It is a mystery

 

In yet another controversial statement on July 22 in the open court room, the Chief Justice of India, while refusing to take a suo motu cognisance of the police action against the students, said to the lawyer who made the plea: ‘don’t waste our time… the court has no time to view the videos ‘.  The CJI has invited a flak on social media for his remarks. How could the head of the judiciary make such unpalatable remarks when the court is the last hope for justice?

 

On July 21, the Speaker Om Birla did not allow any discussion on the lathi charge on the protesting students and the House was adjourned. The LoP Rahul Gandhi and the floor leaders of some Opposition parties met the Speaker asking him to allow discussion on the students’ issues and the police violence.  And the speaker told them that he cannot allow them to discuss the issues without government’s permission. So disgraceful! The Parliament is not somebody’s real estate. It is the highest national forum meant for discussion and debate.  If the Parliament can’t allow discussion on such burning national issue, then what is the Parliament for? Who is accountable for the suicide of 22 students following the paper leak and the cancellation of the NEET examination already held.

 

Rahul Gandhi and the Congress MPs met at Mallikarjun Kage’s residence on July 21 to greet him on his 84th birthday. He didn’t celebrate the birthday in protest against the assault on the students. Then they decided to carry an impromptu protest to Narendra Modi’s official residence.  The two LoPs -Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge – and the two Chief Ministers of Karnataka and Kerala -DK Shivkumar and VD Satheesan- and other senior leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi and KC Venugopal, sat on a sit-in-dharna in front of the PM’s residence expressing solidary with the protesting students. This was an unpresented dharna to make the indifferent and insensitive government respond to the plight of the students.

 

While continuing the dharna at the PM’s residence, Rahul Gandhi sent a message: “An attack on students is an attack on every Indian family. Prime Minister Modi thinks he can escape without giving answers, without facing any consequences- he won’t be able to, not at all this time.  I ask every patriotic Indian who believes our students deserve justice – join us in dharna in front of the Prime Minister’s residence. The voice of India’s students will not be ignored. Modiji, try every pressure, exert all your might this fight for justice for students will not stop or be halted”. Following the message, the Chief of Samajwadi Party Akilesh Yadav and the working President of NCP (SP) Supriya Sule have also joined the dharna.

 

The sit-in-dharna took the government off-guard. The Union Minister Jitendra Singh and the Home Secretary Govind Mohan rushed to meet Rahul Gandhi. They persuade him to call off the dharna, without success. Then the Police roughed up and pulled, dragged and forcefully lifted him and put in a bus.  He along with Priyanka Gandhi and other congress leaders and Akilesh Yadav were detained. While Rahul Gandhi and others were taken to Chattrasal Stadium; and Priyanka Gadhi was taken to Mandir Marg Police station. They were released late in the night. That the leader of the Opposition -a shadow prime minister- in the largest democracy of the world treated in this manner is very shameful, a blot on Indian parliamentary democracy.

 

The two houses of parliament were adjourned for the day on July 22 – for the third day- without transacting any business. The Congress and the SP members observed a ’Black Day’ by wearing black clothes as a protest against the treatment meted out to the Leader of the Opposition in the House of the People (Lok Sabha) and other prominent Opposition leaders the previous day.   

 

At a press conference later that day, Rahul Gandhi made a presentation showing the slides that reveal the police brutal lathi charge on the students. He presented that during the past one decade; there were 152 paper leaks that affected the future of 7.5 core students; but zero conviction, not a single guilty person punished.  He revealed that the families of the NEET students spend money equivalent to the Union government’s annual budgetary allocation on education.  The Centre spends around Rs.1.4 lakh crore on education in a year, while the students spend 1.32 lakh core on a single NEET examination. The higher education is simply not affordable for the middle class and poor. What a farcical and uneven education system?

 

The Education system once reputed the world over is now rigged: “The students are protesting peacefully, asking for what country owes them. They are simply asking- we deserve an education system that is fair.  Thousands of students are being lathi-charged, rifles are being pointed at them, legs are being broken, pellet guns are being used on them. These are not terrorists. They are our future. These are not our enemies”.  

 

Rahul Gandhi said with the doors of job opportunities in sectors such as Manufacturing, Entrepreneurship, Corporate and IT and Public Sector being closed, the only door opened to the youth is that of the government jobs, and that door too is destroyed.

 

He said there are three genuine demands of the students: (i) resignation of the Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, because he is a symbol of paper leak;(ii) everyone who assaulted students must be held accountable; and (iii) PM Modi must apologize to students. Earlier, on July 21, speaking to the media reporters in the Parliament premises, he demanded resignation of Amit Shah and Narendra Modi holding them responsible for the brutal assault on the students, who were peacefully protesting. He said he totally agrees with the students demands and the Congress party and the Opposition support them.

 

On June 17, addressing the students at the programme Chhatron Ki Goonj at Kota, he said the examination system in India is an extortion system. And at a similar programme at Dehradun on July 17, he said NEET paper is sold at Rs.40 lakh and JEE paper at Rs.15 lakh, and that there is a big paper leak mafia which fixes rate for paper leak of every competitive public examination.

 

It is a positive development that while the LoP Raul Gandhi, the Congress and the INDIA bloc have been agitating over the students ‘issues, particularly the papers leaks and unemployment, the CJP and Sonam Wangchuk have started a parallel protest movement, galvanizing the Gen Z.  The INDIA bloc and the CJP could have played a complementary role, but that didn’t happen.  

 

Will Sonam Wangchuk’s indefinite fast bring any positive outcome and change of heart in the Modi government? There is some ambiguity in the approach and the stand taken by the CJP and Wangchuk. He has now adopted a conciliatory approach. And going by the attitude and the track record of the government of not conceding any ground to the opposition, it is likely the government may manage to ensure the protest movement fizzles out.

 

Be that as it may, the INDIA bloc must siege the opportunity of Gen Z being angry and mobilized against the government for its failure to ensure a safe and secure future for them, and stand firm in their resolve to challenge and resist the Modi-Shah juggernaut. The government,as usual, continues to adopt the same attitude of my way or high way. All that happened - the suicide by so many students, the students' protest and the police brutal lathi charge on them, the LoP's dharna- makes no difference to the arrogant government that thinks not accountable to anyone.