Attacking the prime minister, Narendra Modi, in India’s Lok Sabha, the Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi said the trust of the younger generation would be won not by changing the camera angle but by changing the outlook of the heart.
She made the remarks on Tuesday while taking part in a debate on the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026.
Priyanka said the prime minister, Narendra Modi, and the home minister, Amit Shah, must answer for the police action against students protesting over the leak of the NEET-UG examination paper. She asked whether the students were terrorists, that they should have been baton-charged and had pellet guns and weapons used against them.
She alleged that instead of addressing the students’ concerns, the government had used force in response to a democratic movement. She said every blow of a baton had damaged the government’s image more than it damaged the students.
Referring to a meeting with the family of an injured student at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Priyanka said the country’s young people were losing faith in a system in which irregularity counted for more than merit.
She claimed that 152 examination paper leaks had taken place in India over the past decade, but that no effective action had yet been taken against any “paper leak ring.” She also raised questions about the priorities of the country’s education system, arguing that families’ private spending on preparation for competitive examinations far exceeds investment in public education.
The Congress leader KC Venugopal also criticised the police action against NEET candidates. He read out in the Lok Sabha a letter left behind by a 19-year-old NEET candidate from Maharashtra, who took her own life on 25 July after falling 11 marks short of the cut-off she had hoped for. BD Global Times is not naming her.
Venugopal said the number of student suicides had risen from 8,068 in 2014 to 14,488 now. He described it not as a mere statistic but as a “terrible crisis.”
In her speech Priyanka Gandhi said it was the angle of the prime minister’s heart, not of his camera, that needed to change. Her remark caused tension in parliament for a time. When members of the ruling party objected, there was an argument over the matter and the speaker, Om Birla, ordered some remarks to be expunged from the record.
Venugopal also said students protesting peacefully are not enemies of the state, and that those responsible for attacking them must be identified and held to account.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report