BJP MP Tejasvi Surya speaks in the Lok Sabha during the Monsoon Session of Parliament in New Delhi on Tuesday
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Lok Sabha reconvened on Tuesday after a week-long logjam for a heated debate on the Bill to amend the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, with treasury benches showcasing their younger speakers – Bansuri Swaraj, Tejaswi Surya, Anurag Thakur – who employed GenZ lingo by way of relating to the anti-NEET paper leak protestors and chided and mocked the Opposition.The Opposition’s charge was amplified mostly by women MPs Priyanka Gandhi, Supriya Sule, Dimple Yadav, who demanded accountability for police action on protesting students and whether the amendment under discussion, which makes the law for paper leaks stricter, will actually ensure the system is leak-proof, considering that there has been no conviction under the law so far.Initiating the debate, Union Minister of State for PMO, Jitendra Singh, said the government has finished an unaccomplished task of bringing a law to prevent examination malpractices in 2024.Priyanka Gandhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot win over the protesting students by changing camera angles, a reference to the midnight video message released by the PM. “There’s nothing to be gained by changing camera angles. You need to change the angle of your heart,” she said.She also criticised the Centre’s spending on education, saying the annual education budget stood at ₹1.4 lakh crore while families of around 22 lakh NEET aspirants collectively spent ₹1.32 lakh crore on preparations for the examination. In contrast, she said, this government had waived off Rs 16 lakh crore of loans of “friendly industrialists”.Gandhi criticised the high-powered committee to advice on the examination system, which has been constituted under former UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani, which also includes IIT Chennai director V. Kamakoti, who has made statements about the anti-bacterial properties of cow urine. “Among those luminaries in this committee is a ‘gau mutra’ expert,” she said, leading to a storm of protest from the treasury benches. Later, Anurag Thakur of the BJP defended Kamakoti, who, he said, had more educational qualifications than “everyone in the Gandhi family together”.Supriya Sule criticised Education Minister Pralhad Joshi, who forced the Speaker to extend the time given to BJP MP Tejaswi Surya, who was attacking the Congress for different incidents of paper leaks that took place under its charge. “You are the Education Minister. Show some seriousness. Give the House some confidence that you mean to make systemic reforms,” Sule said.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 PM’s residence because it was suffering from “MIA” (missing in action), “FOMO” (fear of missing out) and “Delulu” (delusion).Bansuri 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”.Published on July 28, 2026
