On 21 July 2026, the Delhi Police dragged India’s Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi from outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence, where the former was staging a sit-in.
“Treat me five times worse, I don’t care,” he said a day later, at a press conference.
At the same interaction with the press, Gandhi clarified that he sat outside the PM’s residence because discussions around the NEET paper leak and the youth’s uprising were not being discussed in Parliament.
“Our natural space is Parliament. Before going to the PM’s house, the Opposition went to the Speaker [of Lok Sabha]... respectfully. We said, ‘Look, this is a major issue. Let us speak about it, and discuss it.’ He said he'd ask the government. Meaning it is not Speaker’s decision. It’s the government’s decision. Fine. No discussion took place after that. The whole issue was ignored,” said Gandhi.
His whole press conference hinged on the education system, which he said was “rigged”. He spelled out three reasons behind the students’ agitation against the Centre, and three demands for the Modi government to fulfill.
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The reasons students were protesting, as per the LoP:
A “rigged” education system; 152 paper leaks, and “zero convictions”
In May 2026, the NEET-UG paper was leaked. It is the only ticket for millions of Indian students to find a spot at, both, government and private medical colleges.
Lakhs of students had to take a retest a few weeks after the leak.
“Children have committed suicide. Our students go through unlimited stress. And then at the last minute, they're told that the paper has leaked.”
Close on the heels of the NEET paper leak came revelations about faulty checking of CBSE Class 12 papers. The Central Board of Secondary Education had experimented with a new testing system, but students alleged it was faulty, which led to rechecking.
Gandhi said at the press conference, “Our education system, which was known to be one of the best education systems in the world, is, today, a rigged system.”
“I don't say this lightly,” he continued. “Thousands of students who are running around outside are not saying this lightly. What is the proof? It's a superficial proof because we don't actually know the exact number. But what we do know is that 152 paper leaks have taken place over the last decade. If you do the math, so one a month, one a month, approximately. Every month, lakhs of students are told that all the stress that you went through, you're going to have to go through again. And after that, they’re told, ‘We really don't care. We don't care if there's a re-exam. We don't care how much you have to wait. We don't give a damn.’
Seven-and-a-half crore students and their families are affected by this. These are middle class and poor families. They put their hard-earned money into this. And then they literally spat on. And the best part of this is zero convictions. In the last 10 years, 152 leaks have taken place and zero convictions, zero. So, somebody is, or a group of people are destroying our education system, India's most valuable asset; destroying the lives of our students. And what does the government do? Zero convictions.”
An “unaffordable system”
“One exam costs the families who take this exam the same amount of money as our entire education budget. So, please think. The government of India, after collecting all the taxes, spends money on the future of our children. That money goes into something called the education budget. It is Rs. 1.4 lakh crores. At the same time, every year, 1.32 lakh crore— similar amount — is spent by the families, who are taking the NEET exam. So, please understand the scale of this thing. This is pure theft from these families. There's nothing else.”
No jobs
“Even after you have an education; you become a doctor, you become a lawyer, you learn something; you're suddenly told that the doors that should be open to you — what your country and your government owes you, a livelihood, a job — is closed.
So, manufacturing is closed. Look around you, you'll see there are only Chinese products.
Entrepreneurship is closed. Take a look at who gets the money from the banks. Two or three large companies get all the money from the banks.
So, a young person, who wants to be an entrepreneur, cannot.
Corporate job. AI is destroying it, the IT sector.
Public sector has been privatised.
So, what is the choice? The only choice they have is a government job.
So, you give them one door, you close all the doors, then you rig that system and make it unbelievably expensive. And then you expect they won't be outside.
Gandhi said the Congress party and the Opposition were “100% in agreement with what every student is feeling and doing. And there must be some consequences to what has been done some days ago. It is not their fault.”
Here, Gandhi spelled out three demands that students have:
The resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan
“Dharmendra Pradhan is a symbol, and the students have pain about how they were treated. Out of respect for the students, that symbol has to be removed. That symbol has to be removed because he's a completely incompetent, probably collusive, person in this drama. We know his background. We know how clean he is. We know the type of person he is. There's a history here. And to send a message to the country that we are listening to the students, we respect their sentiments, this man's gotta go,” said Gandhi while taking questions later in the press conference.
Accountability of everyone who “assaulted” students
Referring to the Delhi Police and Rapid Action Force’s crackdown on the protest at Jantar Mantar, Gandhi said, “Every single person who raised a finger on our students — and it doesn't matter who he is: the people who ordered it, and the people who executed it — should be made accountable.”
Modi must apologise to the students
“The man who is running this entire system; the man who is finally accountable to all this; should have the decency to apologise to the students for what has happened. These are not complicated things, these are not difficult things.”
In a message to students, he said, “We fully support these demands, and we fully support every single student who is on the streets. And we are fully behind you, and we are going to ensure that you are protected and your future is protected.”
When Gandhi took questions from the press at the end, he said he didn’t care about being treated the way he was, and that he was “used to getting punched and all, it’s not a problem”.
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