Ending a week-long deadlock, the Lok Sabha on Tuesday took up discussion on the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, with the government defending the proposed legislation as a stronger safeguard against examination malpractice while the Opposition argued that the 2024 law had already failed to prevent paper leaks.
Initiating the debate on the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, Union Minister of State for PMO Jitendra Singh said the Narendra Modi government finished an unaccomplished task to bring a law to prevent examination malpractices in 2024.
"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," Singh said.
The opposition has been raking up the NEET paper leak issue since the Monsoon session began on July 20. As a result, no legislative business could be taken up in Lok Sabha until Monday, except for the introduction of two bills.
Singh introduced the bill on Monday, days after student protests over the NEET fiasco led to Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation as education minister. The legislation provides for stricter punishment of up to 10 years in jail and a heftier fine of Rs 50 lakh for paper leaks.
Attacking the government for the way it handled the students protests, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to change his "dil ka angle" instead of camera angles if he wants to win over Gen Z. Her sharp barb came over Modi's Instagram outreach to student protesters last week.
Gandhi also slammed the government over the lathi-charge on students, saying every 'lathi' blow on any boy or girl, hurt the government's prestige more than the backs of the students.
"Why was it necessary to fire tear gas shells at students, to rain lathis on them?Why was it necessary-to humiliate young girls by tearing their clothes, to have them beaten mercilessly? Why was it necessary to fire pellet guns and AK-47s at the country's youth? Are they terrorists," the Congress general secretary asked.
She said today, these questions are being asked not just by the Congress but by the entire nation, and the responsibility to answer them lies with the government.
"Why does this government fear the country's youth? Who gave it the right to suppress their voices," she said.
BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj strongly defended the legislation and accused the opposition of displaying "selective outrage" over examination paper leaks, saying such incidents also happened during the Congress-led UPA regime.
She asserted that the Modi government had undertaken structural reforms to strengthen the examination system.
Swaraj, daughter of BJP's late leader Sushma Swaraj, said the proposed legislation aimed at ensuring faster prosecution and stricter punishment for offenders.
"It's a transformative amendment. It's not just necessary but the need of the hour. It shows the responsible approach of the Modi government," she said.
The BJP MP from New Delhi alleged that the Opposition was trying to create a narrative that paper leaks started happening only after 2014, when the BJP-led NDA came to power at the Centre.
"This is not about whataboutery but about calling out the Opposition's selective outrage. Principles cannot change depending on which government is in power," she said.
The NDA MPs, including Swaraj, while wholeheartedly supporting the bill, tried to speak in the "language" spoken by the Gen-Z - the key force behind the 36 days protest led by the Cockroach Janta Party.
Supporting the bill, Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde said there is a need to change the system of holding this exam on a specified day only.
Stating that he was "using Gen-Z language", Shinde accused the opposition of staging a protest outside the prime minister's residence because it was suffering from "MIA" (missing in action), "FOMO" (fear of missing out) and "Delulu" (delusion).
Swaraj, a first-time MP, also invoked Gen-Z terminology, saying, "Where Congress created a policy vacuum, Modi clocked it, if I may borrow the language of Gen Z, and created a solution. All the opposition did was chase political opportunism".
Surya too used a 'Gen-Z' term to attack the Opposition. "I want to tell the opposition because of this issue. The opposition thinks that youth are with them, but there is no bigger "delulu" than this," he said.
Congress deputy leader Gaurav Gogoi questioned the proposed amendments to the anti-paper leak law, saying despite an existing law, question paper leaks of public examinations have continued and it has proved to be a failure.
Gogoi also said that students were compelled to hit the streets and their pain needs to be understood.
He slammed the government over the use of pellet guns and electric batons against the protesters and questioned the behaviour of police in demeaning the dignity of women.
Accusing the Centre of failing to address the concerns of students, he said merely enhancing punishments and penalties will not curb paper leaks unless the education system is comprehensively reformed.
Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav claimed that the government was rattled and was forced to bow down and accept the demands of the protesting students.
He said the students' stir on the NEET paper leak issue was the first such agitation supported by parents.
Yadav slammed the police crackdown on students where allegedly "lathis with spikes and electric batons" were used and said such "injustice was akin to the Emergency period".
"Jab sarkar dar jati hai, ghabra jati hai, to sweekar kar leti hai'¦Sarkar jhuki aur sweekar kiya (When the government gets rattled, it accepts... the government bowed down and accepted the demands)," he said, referring to the resignation of Pradhan.
DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran reiterated his party's demand for scrapping NEET, arguing that the proposed amendments to the anti-paper leak law do not address what he described as the fundamental problem with the medical entrance examination.
Maran said Tamil Nadu had consistently opposed NEET since its inception and accused the Centre of ignoring the state's concerns.
"Enough is enough, ban NEET, abolish NEET. Do not go for 'One India, One Examination'. Our strength comes from our diversity," he said.
TDP MP Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu urged the government to conduct the NEET-UG examination multiple times a year instead of just once.
He said even if a close family member dies on the day of the examination, a candidate has no choice but to appear for the exam. "I request to overhaul the exam so that it happens multiple times in a year," he said.
TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, while extending support to the bill, said the legislation will not wash away the 12 years of the "incompetence and failure" of the BJP-led Centre even as he extended his party's support to the proposed legislation.
"It cannot erase the humiliation faced by lakhs of young Indians. It cannot erase images of students who came seeking justice and were met with barricades and pellet guns, instead of love and compassion," he said.
He also said the bill cannot erase the fact that the examination was cancelled and aspirants' dreams were broken.
(With inputs from PTI)
