New Delhi: A fiery speech by Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra during a debate in Lok Sabha on amendments to the anti-paper leak law set her on collision course with the Modi government Tuesday, after her comments aimed at newly appointed Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi.
During the debate on The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, Priyanka also questioned the composition of the Nandan Nilekani-chaired high-powered task force on exam reforms constituted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Its members include, among others, former Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief Tapan Deka and IIT-Madras director V. Kamakoti, who Priyanka referred to as “an expert on gaumutra”.
The jibe was a reference to Kamakoti’s remarks in January 2025 about the “anti-bacterial” and “anti-fungal” properties of cow urine.
Other members of the panel include former ISRO chairman S. Somanath, former education secretary Anita Karwal, and former Bihar chief secretary Amrit Lal Meena.
Criticising Joshi’s appointment as education minister, Vadra remarked that the PM allocated the portfolio to a person who had defended the release of convicts in the Bilkis Bano case.
What message does that send to India’s girls, she asked.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju objected to the remark, saying it amounted to “character assassination within Parliament,” and asked that it be expunged and that Priyanka apologise to the House. Joshi, in turn, asked Vadra to authenticate her statement, and the Speaker told her not to make statements without facts, while BJP MP Nishikant Dubey said she should authenticate it first, and went on to make a remark about Jawaharlal Nehru’s personal life. Vadra said she would furnish evidence and authenticate it.
Joshi, along with Commerce Minister Piyush Goya and BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, later called on Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla over remarks made by Vadra in the House. Her remarks were later expunged from the record.
Joshi was given charge of the Education Ministry on 25 July after Dharmendra Pradhan under pressure from the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest. In 2022, as Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Joshi had defended the release of the 11 men convicted of gang-raping Bilkis Bano, who was five-months pregnant at the time, and killing seven of her family during the 2002 Gujarat riots, saying he found nothing wrong as the remission was granted in accordance with the due process of law.
Speaking to reporters outside Parliament after the debate, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi carried the charge further. He said the BJP had made “a defender of rapists” the education minister. “There can be no filthier man than somebody who says that rapists need protection,” he said, adding that the Prime Minister could have chosen anyone from his Cabinet but picked a “person who protects rapists”.
On the Bill itself, Vadra said its main change was to increase the punishment for paper leaks, but that no offender had been punished since the parent Act was passed in 2024.
She said the names and addresses of students who took part in the recent protests were being made public through facial recognition technology, while no such action was taken against those behind paper leaks, and that the Bill had no concrete measures to prevent leaks.
She said the Prime Minister needed to change his advisers, who she said were disconnected from reality, and that new committees would not solve the problem, noting that the recommendations of the earlier Radhakrishna Committee had not been implemented.
The committee was set up under former ISRO chief K. Radhakrishnan to reform the NTA after the 2024 NEET-UG paper leak.
Vadra also contrasted the welcome given to Pradhan at Makar Dwar of Parliament with a death in Maharashtra, where a family was mourning a daughter who died by suicide after being affected by a paper leak.
She said that where there should have been shame, there was celebration.
The Congress MP went further to add that the examination system had failed, citing 152 paper leaks over the last decade affecting 7.5 crore students, with no culprit or paper-leak mafia punished. She said the government had hollowed out the education system by stacking it with RSS pracharaks, had set up the NTA and centralised the system, and that the share of education in the Union budget was declining.
On police action during the ‘Sansad Chalo’ protest march on 20 July, Vadra asked who had ordered the use of force. “What was the need to use pellet guns and AK-47s against the youth of this country? Were they terrorists?” she said, also citing use of tear gas, lathicharge and water cannons, and the treatment of young women by police personnel.
She asked whether the Prime Minister or Union Home Minister Amit Shah had given the order, and said the whole country, not the Congress alone, wanted an answer.
She also listed the protesters’ demands: action on the leaks, reform of the system, removal of paper leak mafias, the resignation of the minister during whose tenure the leaks occurred, action against those who used force against students, and an apology.
She said hundreds of students had died by suicide and others were in depression, and that families were taking loans and selling belongings to pay donations, capitation fees and coaching fees without any assurance of jobs.
Fast-track courts, she said, had a poor record, noting that the CBI counsel had not appeared at the first hearing of the fast-track court set up to hear paper leak cases, and, in a swipe at the Prime Minister, said that making videos from different camera angles would not win him the trust of India’s Gen Z.
Before her, allies of the government had defended it.
Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Eknath Shinde said no single exam could decide a student’s future and that the government stood with the youth, adding that it had not only condemned the paper leak but tried to clean the system, that Pradhan took onus, and that the NEET re-examination was held within 37 days and the result made public within 25 days.
TDP MP Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu proposed a national question bank and decentralised question-paper setting. He asked the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to fill vacancies in forensics to speed up investigations and, citing the 2012 Nirbhaya case, said the speed of fast-track courts needed monitoring, and called for coaching institutes to be made non-profit. When DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran called to ban NEET, Devarayalu said Tamil Nadu wanted to ban everything, which was why industries were moving to Andhra Pradesh.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)