NEW DELHI: Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should apologise to the country’s students for the “broken and corrupt” education system.
Referring to Modi's video message shared on Instagram on Friday night in which the PM said that he had forgiven the students who allegedly abused him during a recent protest at Delhi's Jantar Mantar, Gandhi said that students don't need his forgiveness.
"Nothing is more painful than seeing a parent grieve their child. Behind every young life lost is a family carrying pain that will never leave them - and serious questions about a broken education system. Leaked papers. Cancelled exams. Years of preparation destroyed overnight.
"Our students are told to work honestly in a system that is not honest with them…And the Prime Minister has the audacity to speak of 'forgiving' students," Gandhi posted on X, after meeting families and kin of NEET aspirants who ended their lives.
Gandhi also pointed out that Modi had not met a single grieving parent.
"He has not met a single grieving parent. He has not sat with a single student whose future was stolen by a leaked paper. India’s students do not need his forgiveness. They are owed his apology," Gandhi wrote.
Criticising Modi, Congress' chief whip in Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh said that he is "playing victim card" instead of apologising for brutality on protesting students.
In a post on X, Ramesh also alleged that the PM frequently targeted his predecessors and political opponents while portraying himself as a victim.
He added that the PM’s "InstaGram sabhas", which he termed an act of "supreme self-obsession", are fooling no one.
"He uses vile vitriol against his predecessors and political opponents. He very frequently peddles lies to defame them, not just in his public speeches but in Parliament itself. He unleashes an army of foul-mouthed abusers both in Parliament and outside and gives them full protection," Ramesh said.
The Congress MP further said that the entire nation wants the PM to apologise for the trauma inflicted on lakhs of youth through his paper leak-ridden National Testing Agency (NTA) and "home ministry-sanctioned brutality on student protestors."
"Late last night, in act of supreme self-obsession, the PM said that he forgave our youth. This is an insult to the nation and to our youth which has suffered under his Government and is legitimately demanding an apology from him. The Prime Minister’s InstaGram Sabhas are fooling no one," he wrote on X.