New Delhi, July 20: congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday slammed described Narendra Modi as most anti-youth Prime Minister of the country after the DELHI police resorted to lathi charge on the students demanding accountability over paper leaks and resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Dramatic scenes were witnessed on the streets of national capital after Cockroach Janata Party has planned a march from Jantar Mantar to Parliament over the recurring paper leak issue. However, Delhi Police resorted to lathi charge at protesters, once they started their march from Jantar Mantar.
The police also fired tear gas shells and again lathi charged the protesters near Parliament to disperse the crowd.
Taking a swipe at the government, Rahul Gandhi in a video statement, which he posted on X, said, “This country has a majority of young people. Prime Minister Modi is the most anti-youth Prime Minister India has ever had.”
He said that the boys and girls who are walking the streets of Delhi are not “criminals”.
“They are demanding their rights. Their rights are to have an education system that respects them, to have an education system that is fair, to have an education system that is working. There is absolutely nothing wrong in what they are doing and it’s disgusting what the government is doing and what the police is doing,” the Rae Bareli MP said.
In a sharp criticism of the government, Rahul Gandhi condemned the police action on the protesters and said, “This is absolutely no way to behave. Tear-gassing students, lathi-charging students is not democratic. It’s not India’s way and it is not the way this should be done.”
Backing the students demands, he said, “They have legitimate demands. The Prime Minister should accept these demands and do something about it. Everybody is sick and tired of the way our education system is running.”
“Everybody is sick and tired of how the RSS has captured our education system and how all our institutions are being run by one organisation. This is a natural response that the young people of India are making and it should be respected.
“We’ve been raising this issue not for weeks or months. We’ve been raising it for years. It is a fundamental problem and Modi disrespects all the young people of this country. All they believe in is asathya (falsehood) and hinsa (violence) which are the anti-Indian principles,” the Gandhi scion added.
In his post on X in Hindi, he wrote, “Prime Minister Modi is the most anti-youth Prime Minister in India’s history—so anti-youth that he cannot even seek the resignation of an unsuccessful Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan.”
He pointed out that there have been 152 paper leaks, affecting 75 million (7.5 crore) students, yet not a single guilty person has been punished.
“Who has been punished instead? The hardworking youth,” he said.
“And when these students raised legitimate questions about education, the government’s response was batons and detention. The criminals responsible for the leaks remain free, while students raising genuine concerns are dragged away and beaten. This government is not just failing the youth—it has turned against them,” he alleged.
Rahul Gandhi’s had held two programmes titled Chhatron ki goonj, over the issue of NEET and other paper leaks in Rajasthan’s Kota on June 17 ad in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun on July 17.
He has highlighted that how India’s education system is a rejection system and not a selection system.
The Delhi Police action against the protesters on Monday has given fresh ammo to the opposition to target the government over thenissue of paper leaks.