House clears anti-paper leak Bill, PM Narendra Modi says nobody will be spared

Underlining that his government had delivered on its promise to bring a tough law, he said: “We are taking step after step towards creating a reliable education system, whether it is the creation of a task force, fast-track courts, taking suggestions from states… A nationwide reform in education sector has become compulsory… work in this direction will continue.”

Earlier, before Union Minister Jitendra Singh could respond to the debate on the Bill in the Rajya Sabha, INDIA bloc MPs walked out, demanding that Home Minister Amit Shah make a statement on the police action against protesting students last week. Singh said it was unfortunate that the MPs who had spoken most vociferously during the debate had walked out.

Referring to the Opposition members raising the issue of police action on students, Singh said: “There was also mention of the so-called brutality unleashed on the children. It is not so. There has not been any casualty reported”. On the demand by some that the National Testing Agency (NTA) should be abolished, he said more exam leaks happened in state-level exams.

He said suggestions were welcome and that was why the government had set up a high-powered task force on exam reforms. “The issue is so vast and so serious that it cannot be left to the government alone… We call for cooperation from all sections of society, individual citizens, families and parents of the children. We are proceeding with an open mind, and we are not only ready to walk the talk, we are, in fact, ready to walk an extra mile,” he said.

Initiating the discussion in the afternoon, Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge demanded Shah’s resignation. “Paper churane wale bachte rahe, mehnat karne wale pit te rahe. Yeh kaisa nyay (Those behind paper leaks kept escaping, those who worked hard kept getting beaten up. What kind of justice is this),” he said, alleging that the government had ignored demands for a strong law against paper leaks in 2024.

Singh, who moved the Bill in the House, said the amendments reflect the government’s willingness to “learn from experience” after the implementation of the 2024 law. “In the wake of the recent sequence of events, PM Modi lost no time in declaring that nobody would be allowed to jeopardise the students’ future. There is a zero tolerance policy. This legislation seeks to make the law more stringent. It is my humble request to all leaders in the House to help pass the Bill,” he said.

However, Kharge said the amendments merely enhanced penalties and created new enforcement mechanisms without addressing the root causes of recurring paper leaks. “The Bill that has come to the House for discussion only has modified numbers — higher penalties, stricter punishment and the special task force. This is not going to make any difference. The question is how to strengthen the exam system so that paper leaks don’t happen,” he said.

Amid repeated interruptions by the treasury benches during his hour-long interjection, Kharge questioned the use of force against students and sought accountability for the police action. “Who authorised the use of lathicharges, tear gas and pellet guns on students? Who were the people in plainclothes beating up students? Under whose orders do the RAF and CRPF operate? Who was the mastermind behind this entire sequence of events? The country wants answers to these questions. If the Home Minister cannot answer, he should resign,” he said.

“This government wants to protect Home Minister Amit Shah, but it will not be able to protect him for long,” he added.

Kharge claimed that over 100 students were injured and several were hospitalised during the protest last week. “Many students are admitted to hospitals in critical condition. Many children have suffered pellet gun injuries on their bodies and eyes. Several students are hospitalised; some have lost their eyesight, while many have suffered broken limbs. Home Minister Amit Shah is responsible for this,” he said.

Amid sloganeering from the treasury benches, Opposition MPs sought an apology from Union Minister Giriraj Singh as he alleged foreign funding during protests.

“What the government is doing today, we had suggested back in 2024, but at that time the government did not listen to us. Back then, the Lok Sabha elections were approaching, and the government wanted to play politics while Rahul Gandhi was raising questions about paper leaks during the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra,” Kharge said.

The Congress president also accused the Centre of weakening academic freedom and promoting ideological appointments in higher educational institutions. He said educational institutions were being filled with people affiliated to the RSS.

“University campuses are not meant for any narrow ideology, blind superstition, or the imposition of a single ideology. But under the Modi government, educational institutions are being filled with RSS affiliates. The position of Vice-Chancellor in the country’s universities is being given exclusively to people associated with the RSS,” he said.

Kharge demanded a ‘National Youth Employment Strategy’ and a fixed annual exam calendar. He said the repeated postponement of exams, question paper leaks, delayed results and stalled recruitment processes were impacting the careers of young people, with many candidates crossing the age limit in the process.

Earlier in the day, as the House was informed that the Bill would be taken up for consideration, Congress MP Pramod Tiwari, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, said they wanted Shah to issue a statement on the police crackdown on protesters.

While Opposition members raised slogans of “Amit Shah sadan mai aao (come to the House)”, union Minister J P Nadda said: “I want to tell the House that the Opposition’s stance has been negative since this session began. They only want to interrupt; they want to shift goalposts. I want to clarify… that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is willing to discuss any matter”.

“Whenever discussions have happened, the Opposition has fallen flat on their face. They are in the habit of doing this, and I condemn this strongly. They are indulging in irresponsible behaviour,” he said.

The Opposition staged a walkout before the House reconvened in the afternoon.

During the discussion on the Bill, several Opposition MPs raised the demand to do away with NEET altogether, returning to a decentralised system.

DMK MP Tiruchi Siva asked how one exam system could work in a diverse country like India. He said through NEET, the “criteria to become a medical student is money.”

Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav, too, demanded that the exam be handed back to the states. “The more it becomes digitised, the easier it is to leak,” he said. He said the government should give the states the right to conduct the exam, with 15% of seats being filled through the CBSE’s central exam, as was the case before NEET.

CPI(M) MP John Brittas and RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha called for the National Testing Agency (NTA) to be abolished. Referring to the Bill, Jha, who is a Delhi University professor, said: “These cosmetic reforms won’t work, you have to dismantle the source of the disease, which is the NTA. Your bureaucracy and your MPs also know this.”

“Legislation per se is not a panacea for a crisis of this magnitude,” Brittas said. He flagged the scale of the coaching industry, saying its annual turnover was Rs.1.4 lakh crore. “Scrap NTA, decentralise the system, review NEET,” he said.

“The treasury benches are not worried because their children are studying abroad. They have no skin in the game,” TMC MP Sagarika Ghose said. “A cancelled examination is not just an administrative failure, it is a personal betrayal,” she said, adding that the Bill was no solution to the problem at hand.

“Looking at this Bill, it seems the government is admitting that paper leak will continue. You don’t have the confidence that you can conduct an exam without a leak,” AAP MP Sanjay Singh said. Referring to the Bill’s provision for fast-track courts, Singh said there were already 2.5 lakh cases pending in fast-track courts across the country.

BJD member Santrupt Misra said the Bill gives unreasonable timelines for probe and trial — two months and three months respectively. “This Bill starts unfortunately after a crime has been committed, it does not prevent the crime,” Misra said.

Milind Deora of the Shiv Sena suggested that students should be involved in the reform process by being given a formal role in the consultations, and security audits be conducted for all major exams.

Meanwhile, defending Shah, BJP MP Brij Lal said: “As a Home Minister, he has led the forces from the front. Now, terrorism is over and Naxalism is over.” On the question of who ordered the use of force on protestors, Lal, who is a retired Uttar Pradesh DGP, said: “Whenever there is a law and order situation, the magistrate decides, along with police officers, on the use of force.”

BJP MP Raghav Chadha said, “Protesting, asking questions, raising demands, taking out peaceful marches are all the constitutional rights of students, and they should do so. But a student protest should remain a student protest; it should not become a rally of any political party.” He also cited instances of alleged paper leaks in Congress-ruled states.

IUML MP Haris Beeran pointed to a 2002 Supreme Court Constitution Bench judgment in P Ramachandra Rao vs State of Karnataka that says the legislature cannot prescribe timelines to the judiciary. He asked how the Bill could provide for a three-month timeline for trial of offences under the Act.