Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused the Centre of failing India's students, claiming that 152 examination paper leaks had taken place over the past decade without a single conviction and demanded the removal of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters, Gandhi criticised the police action against students during the July 20 protest march to the Parliament and called for those responsible for the assault on protesters to be held accountable.
He also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apologise to the students.
"What wrong have our students done to have security forces aiming weapons at them, beating them up," Gandhi said.
"The question is why is this happening to students. What exactly have they done? Thousands of them. To have security forces aiming weapons at them. What have they done? They are protesting peacefully. They are asking for what this country owes them," the LoP said, adding: "Protesting students are not terrorists, they are our future... action should be taken against all those responsible."
Gandhi said the alleged paper leaks had affected crores of students and their families. "7.5 crore students and their families are affected by this (paper leak). These are middle-class and poor families. They put their hard-earned money into this," he said.
Citing the repeated paper leaks as evidence, Gandhi alleged that India's education system had been systematically undermined and alleged that those responsible for the paper leaks had gone unpunished.
"Our education system, which was known as the best in world, is today a rigged system... What we do know is that 152 paper leaks have taken place over the last decade. If you do the math. So one a month approximately. Every month, lakhs of students are told that all the stress that you went through you're going to have to go through again," he said.
"In the last 10 years, 152 leaks have taken place and zero convictions... Somebody is or a group of people are destroying our education system, India's most valuable asset, destroying the lives of our students. What does the government do? Zero convictions," Gandhi added.
He also argued that the cost of taking the NEET examination had placed a significant financial burden on families.
"It's not just that the system is rigged, it's that the system is unaffordable. This is a statistic that every youngster knows, but somehow the Government of India doesn't," Gandhi said.
"One exam costs the families who take this exam the same amount of money as our entire education budget... At the same time every year, Rs 1.32 lakh crore similar amount is spent by the families who are taking the NEET exam. This is pure theft from these families, nothing else. And then after you steal from them, you tell them that there's a paper leak. The thing is rigged," the LoP added.
Gandhi said students were only demanding an education system that was fair and functional, and called for Pradhan's removal.
"Dharmendra Pradhan should be shown the door, he is incapable of holding the post," he said.
Gandhi said the students had raised three key demands and that the Congress stood firmly behind them, calling it "completely legitimate".
"We are 100% in agreement with what every single student is feeling, what every single student is doing. And there must be some consequences to what has been done some days ago. It is not their fault," he said.
"The first demand completely legitimate demand is that Dharmendra Pradhan, who has failed as an education minister who is known to be corrupt, should be relieved of his duties. 100% legitimate demand. Nothing wrong with it. He has shown India and the world that he is incapable of running this system. Exam leaks are happening one after the other," the LoP said.
"Second demand is that very single person who raised a finger on our students and it doesn't matter who is the people who ordered it and the people who executed it should be made accountable... Third thing is that the man who is running this entire system, the man who is finally accountable to all this, should have the decency to apologise to the students for what has happened" he said.
"This gentleman, Dharmendra Pradhan has literally destroyed India's biggest asset... Our education system have been wiped out and so we fully support these demands and we fully support every single student who's on the streets," he added.