Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday questioned the use of pellet guns and other crowd-control measures against students protesting alleged irregularities in public examinations, asking whether the demonstrators were being treated as “terrorists”.
Participating in the Lok Sabha debate on the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, Gandhi demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah clarify who authorised the police action against student protesters.
“What was the need to fire tear gas at those students, rain lathi blows upon them or use water cannons against them? What was the need to humiliate young women, tear their clothes and brutally beat them?” she asked.
Questioning the reported use of pellet guns during the protests, Gandhi said, “What was the necessity of using pellet guns against the country’s youth? Were they terrorists?”
She also referred to an incident in Bihar in which a police constable was seen carrying an AK-47 rifle during a protest. The Siwan district administration had described the action as unauthorised and inappropriate for crowd control and suspended the constable concerned.
“Who gave the order to use pellet guns? Was it the Prime Minister or the Home Minister? They must answer. It is not just the Congress party. The entire nation is demanding an answer,” Gandhi said.
The remarks come in the backdrop of the July 20 protests in New Delhi, when students marching towards Parliament over alleged irregularities in competitive examinations were dispersed by police using tear gas and lathi-charge. Personnel from the Delhi Police and the Rapid Action Force had been deployed around the Jantar Mantar protest site.
The protesters had demanded the resignation of then Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, accountability over the alleged examination failures and action against those responsible for the police crackdown. The agitation was later withdrawn following Pradhan’s resignation from the Union Cabinet.
Gandhi said thousands of students had exercised their democratic right to protest peacefully.
“Why are you afraid of the youth of this country? Why are you afraid of their powerful voice, and who gave you the right to suppress that voice?” she asked.
The Congress leader also recalled meeting the mother of an injured student who was undergoing treatment at Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital following the police action.
According to Gandhi, the woman expressed anguish over repeated visits by political leaders to the hospital.
“The plea of that mother left me ashamed. The sound of her broken heart still resonates in my mind,” Gandhi said, questioning why such treatment had been meted out to an innocent student.
She also criticised ruling party MPs for welcoming Dharmendra Pradhan at Parliament’s Makar Dwar a day after his resignation.
“He was welcomed in Parliament as if some superstar had arrived,” she remarked.
Turning to the broader issue of examination reforms, Gandhi alleged that 152 paper leak incidents had occurred over the past decade, affecting crores of students, while claiming that no member of the alleged paper leak mafia had been punished.
She further accused the Centre of excessive centralisation through the National Testing Agency (NTA) and alleged that the country’s education system had been weakened by political appointments and a declining share of education in the Union Budget.
Earlier in the day, Union Minister Jitendra Singh moved the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, for consideration and passage in the Lok Sabha.
