Sonia Gandhi accuses Modi government of crushing student protests, demands education reforms

In a broadside against the Modi government Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Friday said students have demanded accountability and educational reforms but the Modi government has responded to their courage with cowardice and wanton cruelty treating them not as inheritors of the future but as enemies of the nationShe accused the government of degrading Indias education landscape and asserted that the countrys students have called the Modi regimes bluff She emphasised it is a moral political and constitutional duty to stand with students and safeguard their futureThe student protests are a natural consequence of these interrelated forces todays bleak education landscape which evokes only hopelessness and the Modi governments trademark arrogance and unwillingness to be accountable or constructive Gandhi said in her article titled An education systems collapse young Indias trauma published in The HinduShe claimed that the brutality perpetrated by the police personnel functioning under the direct authority of the Union Home Minister on student protesters is hardly unprecedented for this regimeWe all remember vividly how armed policemen and paramilitary forces ravaged university campuses during the Citizenship Amendment ActNational Register of Citizens protests in 2020 The unacceptable excesses against Indias women wrestlers can never be erased from our memories she saidThe Modi government has not just degraded Indias education landscape but has also made a habit of acting with utter impunity supreme selfdelusion and abject insensitivity she alleged She pointed out that peaceful protests by students across India against examination paper leaks and the overall decline in the education system have been gaining momentum in recent weeksTheir demands have been straightforward and to the point accountability from the Government of India and education reform The Narendra Modi government has responded to their courage with cowardice and wanton cruelty treating them not as inheritors of the future but as enemies of the nation she saidOn July 20 2026 which she described as a day of infamy the Delhi Police and the Central Armed Police Forces CAPFs sought to suppress them with violence using lathicharges and tear gas the former Congress chief said Gandhi noted that numerous peaceful protesters were injured and even students heading home were not spared as police used batons indiscriminatelyThe nation has seen some of the most depressing visuals of youth whose bodies have been scarred by pellets the use of which would undoubtedly have been approved by Union Home Minister Amit Shah himself her article readThe videos from that day are seared into our memories and have stirred our collective conscience Only the government and its captive media are spinning stories around this spontaneous rising tide of protest It is time to say loud and clear Stop these are our sons and daughters our young men and women Gandhi said Gandhi accused the Modi government of routinely choosing violence over dialogueThe pattern is clear from farmers to activists But this week even a government as insensitive as the one that has set new standards of authoritarian governance sank to a new low Instead of reaching out with understanding to our future doctors and engineers teachers and civil servants entrepreneurs and nation builders it unleashed the repressive power of the state on them This can neither be forgiven or forgotten Gandhi saidShe noted that the governments old toolkit of labelling dissent as antinational has been repurposed to undermine the student protests The Modi government has reached deep into its bag of tricks to cast aspersions and peddle conspiracies when what it should have done is to introspect on its policies that have motivated the protests Gandhi saidShe opined that the first fundamental issue is the Modi governments retreat from public education It has reduced the proportion of its total Budget spent on school education by 50 and on higher education by 33 per cent she pointed outCan anyone see the sense in such an absurd retreat Over the last 12 years the Modi government has shut down nearly one lakh public schools while overseeing the opening of 43000 private schools a large chunk of which are run by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh which along with its affiliate organisations incidentally presides over the largest private school network in India she saidWith highquality affordable public education inaccessible families in India have been forced to spend out of pocket to educate their children Gandhi said The total amount spent by families on the National EligibilitycumEntrance Test NEET examination coaching alone is as much as the Modi government invests in public education in total the Congress MP saidThe acute desperation of our students is a direct consequence of the privatisation and commercialisation of education she argued Gandhi further said that the second issue is the gutting of Indias public examination system which she alleged has undergone the processes of centralisation privatisation and politicisationThe traditional practice of universities and States setting their own examinations to cater to their unique needs was replaced by a centralised National Testing Agency NTAconducted examinations such as the Common University Entrance Test CUET she pointed outThe NTA itself is a hapless chronically understaffed body which relies entirely on an army of private contractors to conduct its examinations It is also well known that the papersetters translators and experts engaged by the NTA are not renowned academics from Indias premier institutions but are for the most part mediocre individuals with political affiliations she saidThe end result of this process has had stark consequences 152 paper leaks occurring across the country in the past 12 years including nine by the NTA itself since it was formed in 2017 Gandhi said The third issue is the difficulty of succeeding in Indias education system she said arguing that highquality wellpaid job opportunities after graduation are a rarity today partly due to the growing monopolisation of the economyBut the last nail in the coffin has been the Modi governments consistent and conscious policy of evading accountability and avoiding goodfaith conversations on education Gandhi assertedShe accused Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan of displaying contempt for accountability by publicly dismissing the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Educations recommendations to strengthen the NTA simply because it had members of the Opposition in it His unwillingness to resign from office despite these monumental failures has only further inflamed public opinion Gandhi saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete 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