We are 100 per cent with students, Pradhan’s resignation non-negotiable, says Rahul Gandhi

Stepping up the demand for the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan a day after Congress leaders were  manhandled, detained and taken into custody during a protest outside the Prime Minister’s official residence, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday, 22 July, laid down three conditions for resolving the crisis.

Gandhi, along with Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, K.C. Venugopal and others, was detained during the protest on Tuesday evening.

Addressing a press conference at Indira Bhavan, Gandhi reiterated that the Congress and the INDIA bloc stood “100 per cent” with the protesting students.

Alleging that 152 examination paper leaks had occurred in the past decade without a single conviction, he demanded the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. “Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation is non-negotiable,” Gandhi said while putting forth the three demands before the government:

• Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan should resign

• Strict action against those responsible for assaulting and humiliating students; and

• An apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the treatment meted out to the students

Gandhi said the paper leaks had affected crores of students and their families.

“Seven-and-a-half crore students and their families have been affected. These are middle-class and poor families who invest their hard-earned money in their children’s education,” he said.

Citing repeated examination leaks, Gandhi said that India’s education system had become deeply compromised.

“Our education system, once regarded among the best in the world, is today a rigged system. We know that 152 paper leaks have taken place over the last decade. That works out to roughly one every month. Every month, lakhs of students are told that all the stress and hard work they went through has gone to waste and that they must start again,” he said.

During the briefing, Gandhi displayed three slides that he said explained the reasons behind the ongoing student protests. He then broadened the discussion beyond examination irregularities to what he described as a looming employment crisis.