New Delhi: The opposition on Tuesday (July 28) questioned why the Union government needed to use pellet guns, tear gas, AK-47s and lathis on protesting youth as the Lok Sabha took up the anti-paper leaks Bill for discussion. The discussion in the House came three days after nationwide youth protests forced Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation.During the discussion, the opposition targeted the government for unleashing brute force in the national capital on July 20 when protesters responded to the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)’s ‘Sansad Chalo’ march, demanding to know who had authorised such orders.The government on the other hand said that the new legislation shows its commitment to the youth and accused the opposition of selective outrage on competitive exam paper leaks.“What was the need to unleash pellet guns and AK-47s on the country’s youth? Were they terrorists? Who will give answers? Who gave the order to use pellet guns? Was it the prime minister or the home minister? The whole country is asking,” said Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.The Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, was introduced by minister of state for the prime minister’s office Jitendra Singh, as both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah remained absent from the House.During the discussion, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said that the government had made the country witness to a state of emergency in the national capital. His remark came after parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju responded to the opposition’s criticism and asked whether it is better for the government to bring a Bill after a youth agitation or impose an Emergency like in 1975.“Which is better, a situation where the government listens to a student protest and introduces a bill in parliament, or one where the government imposes a nationwide Emergency to crush the protest?” asked Rijiju while Yadav was speaking.“I did not witness the Emergency firsthand, but we have seen what happened then right here in the national capital Delhi. Tear gas shells and batons with spikes. At that time electric batons were not used on students like they were this time. This was as good as the Emergency. The injustice is not any less. If they are reminded of the Emergency, then they should remember that after the Emergency the government changed and this time too the government will change,” said Yadav.He added: “The issue is not the law; your intentions are not honest. The moment your intentions become honest, the examination process will also become clean.”Congress deputy leader Gaurav Gogoi, who opened the debate for the opposition, also said that the 36-day-long protests that ended after Pradhan’s resignation showed the strength of democracy as well as the government’s cruelty.“We saw how pellet guns were used, electric batons were used and how one police official slapped a girl and how another police official touched a girl’s private parts. We will not forget those girls who said that the clothes were torn from their backs. This is why we are repeatedly asking: who issued these orders?” he asked.Nationalist Congress Party (SP) MP Supriya Sule said that MPs sitting inside parliament heard the tear gas shells being fired on the youth outside as they remained behind secure walls in the House.In his initial remarks before the discussion, Singh did not make any mention of the police action but said that the government did not want to indulge in a blame game. However he then went on to say that “incidents of paper leaks have taken place in various states ruled by different parties”.“The anti-paper leak Bill is a reaffirmation of the government’s commitment to safeguard the welfare of students and youth. The amendment is being brought to make the law more stringent,” he said.The Bill seeks to amend the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act of 2024 and strengthen fairness, enhance the credibility of the public examination system and facilitate time-bound investigations and speedy trials. The Bill has been brought after Modi last week, amid nationwide protests, promised to set up fast-track courts for paper leak cases.The opposition on the other hand questioned the government over why there was a need to bring a new legislation when the previous one had not been implemented.“The amendment Bill shows that the government is not serious about education and does not want to bring reform. This is only an eyewash. Two years ago this Bill was brought in 2024 and even then there was concern across the country over NEET. The government has once again said that this is a historic Bill that will stop paper leaks,” said Gogoi.“Newspaper reports say that of the 45 people chargesheeted in the 2024 NEET-UG paper leak case, 44 have got bail. The mastermind Sanjeev Mukhiya was absconding for 11 months and in April 2025 he was arrested, following which he got bail. Despite the law being there, the NEET paper was again leaked in 2026,” he said. The CBI said last week that it did not have any evidence of Mukhiya’s involvement in the paper’s theft.Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Dayanidhi Maran raised the case of students who had died by suicide due to NEET, calling the exam a “killer”.“Five ministers have changed in the education ministry. All of them have had some kind of exam paper leaks,” he said.MoS PMO Jitendra Singh, who was one of the government’s emissaries to the Cockroach Janta Party and to Sonam Wangchuk, said that “incidents of paper leaks have taken place in various states ruled by different parties”. Photo: PTI/Sansad TV.“The irony is that the finance minister is saying that students are telling her they got more time to study due to the re-exam. Are you supporting paper leaks? This makes us say that enough is enough. NEET is not necessary. Do not go for ‘one nation, one exam’. Our strength comes in our diversity. Education is on the concurrent list. When states are opposing, why are you not listening to us? The next generation has made us sit here and discuss NEET, which you thought can be pushed under the carpet” he added.Sule in her speech pointed to contradictions in the government’s actions and said that in 2024 the government said to the House in a written reply that it was not the Supreme Court but the government that had brought NEET. But the 2024 Bill in its statements and objects said that NEET became mandatory in view of the Supreme Court’s judgment.“If the 2024 Bill was implemented then, we would not have to see Jantar Mantar. In 2024 the Bill became an Act on June 21 but after that, on June 22, a committee was formed to make recommendations. What joke is this? What was the rush then to bring the Bill?” she asked.All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MP Asaduddin Owaisi said that the Bill should include a provision saying whenever a paper leak takes place, “lathi charge should take place wherever youth are seen”.“The Bill should also mention that the prime minister should make selfie videos and post them,” he said in an apparent swipe at Modi’s vertical videos to reach out to the youth last week.“I want to ask the government whether changing the law, making selfie videos, giving resignations, special task forces or courts bring back the students who died by suicide. The government not only does not understand their pain, [it] is increasing the fines and quantum of punishment. But the real problem, accountability, has been destroyed, [no power has been given] to investigative agencies,” he said.Owaisi said that while 45 paper leaks had taken place in exams with candidate counts of over one lakh, only two had been convicted. “Fast-track courts are not a magic wand that will fix anything. The entire system needs to be reformed.”BJP leaders on the other hand accused the opposition of not acting on paper leaks. BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj accused the opposition of “selective outrage” and called it a “transformative” amendment.Despite the protests in Delhi and other parts of the country, Swaraj and several other NDA MPs attempted to use Gen Z language in their speeches. Swaraj said that “Modi had clocked it”, while Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde said that the opposition felt FOMO (fear of missing out) during the Jantar Mantar protest and decided to jump in. BJP MP Tejasvi Surya said that if the opposition thinks it will gain points with the youth after this protest they are “delulu” (slang for delusional).