New Delhi: “Modi ji clocked it,” BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj said in Lok Sabha Tuesday as she led the debate on the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill for the treasury benches.
“Where Congress-led UPA made a policy vacuum, if I borrow the Gen Z language, then I will have to say, Modi ji clocked it and provided a legislative solution,” she said, while clicking her fingers.
The move to bring Swaraj to lead the debate in the House signals the NDA’s attempts to let younger faces take charge on a Bill introduced as a response to countrywide youth-led protests over the NEET paper leak. The bill proposes to enhance punishment with jail term of up to 10 years and a maximum fine of Rs 50 lakh on those involved in leaking question papers or answer keys and other malpractices in the conduct of public examinations. Apart from increasing penalties and punishments, the Bill also provides for setting up of a special task force for the probe, and special fast track courts for the trials.
Swaraj called the law a “transformative amendment”, saying it is not only a need, but also a demand of the times. “When a competitive examination gets compromised, it not only impacts the candidate whose future is at stake, but also the mother, who feeds warm milk and almonds to her child at 4 am. It also impacts the father, who pays the child’s fees by renouncing his desires,” she said.
PM Modi, she said, has said that a paper leak is a heinous crime and that is why this amendment has been introduced.
“In a democracy as complex as ours, in a democracy as large as ours, an examination is definitely the truest, most meritocratic ritual, because this is one ritual where under the same clock, the son of a labourer and the daughter of a CEO sit down, answer the same set of questions and get judged by the same yardstick. When such a ritual is compromised, what gets diluted is a very holy covenant,” she went on to say.
Swaraj also pointed to a “pariksha mafia” and a cross-state criminal network. She said this Bill ends the questions of jurisdiction in such scenarios, by bringing in a special task force.
She elaborated on the provisions proposed in the Bill, saying it “protects merit, preserves fairness and safeguards the dreams of India’s youth”, adding that “it is the product of responsive governance by a responsible Modi government”.
Swaraj said PM Modi has ensured that “children become exam warriors from exam worriers”, elaborating on a “reform express” in the education sector in the past 12 years. At the same time, she alleged that the Congress and the Opposition were trying to build a narrative that paper leaks began from 2014.
She then went on to list instances where exams had to be cancelled because of paper leaks before 2014, at the central and the state level.
“This is not about whataboutery, I am calling out the Opposition on its selective outrage. I want to ask the Opposition, if this is a battle of principles, then how does the principle change after looking at the government? I want to ask, they spoke of the former education minister, but has Gaurav Gogoi ji asked for the resignation of Punjab’s education minister?” she asked.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)