New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Saturday said the students’ agitation against paper leaks has given a warning to the BJP-RSS regime that they cannot run the government as their personal fiefdom, and in case they did, they would face 10 times the scale of what happened during the stir.
Gandhi said Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan was a symbol of corruption and “it is good that he is gone”. Pradhan resigned on Saturday amid mounting pressure due to the protests over the NEET paper leak controversy.
He described the student protest as a fight between “the past” represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the RSS, and the future of India. Gandhi said he was confident that “the future of India will defeat the past”.
He also urged the prime minister to apologise to the students of the country for the “atrocities” committed on them during the agitation.
Addressing the media outside Sonia Gandhi’s 10, Janpath residence soon after Pradhan resigned, Gandhi said his party held Home Minister Amit Shah directly responsible for the violence against students, and for authorising the use of lethal weapons like pellet guns against them.
Gandhi, the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, said the Congress would not accept forces shooting students and that it will be made a major issue in Parliament.
He also accused the RSS of capturing India’s education system and making it hollow like termites. “It has to go.”
Asked if the Congress would support the bill proposing stringent punishment for paper leaks that the government intends to bring in Parliament, Gandhi said the Congress alone would not be able to take a call on this as it would be a decision based on opposition consensus.
“We are here to protect the students of India, to protect the future of India. As I said, this is a fight between the past, which is Narendra Modi and the RSS, and the future of India. And we are very confident that the future of India will defeat the past,” Gandhi said.
“First of all, it is a victory of our students who are the future of India,” he said, lauding the students for holding against the powers.
On the resignation of the education minister, he said, “Pradhan is a symbol of corruption, destruction of the education system, incompetence. He had to go. It is good that he has gone.”
“But now, concrete steps to change the education system will have to be taken by the government. RSS’ capture of India’s education system has to go. The RSS had worked like a termite with our education system and has made it hollow,” he alleged.
“Serious steps would have to be taken, but I don’t think they can take them. But let’s see,” Gandhi said, urging the government to reform the education system.
The Congress leader claimed that India’s education system, which was once acknowledged as good across the world, is being “attacked, captured and privatised”.
“This was a reaction to that, against the unemployment and today’s situation in the country,” he said.
He said the deeper reason the protest happened is that the Indian job creation system, education system and the institutional system have ceased to exist.
“We are facing times of serious economic crisis. The government should be aware what has happened here is one step in a very deep problem.
“This is students’, opposition’s warning to the government that you cannot run India the way you have been running. This is not your personal fiefdom. This is not something that belongs to you. This belongs to the people,” Gandhi asserted.
“If you carry on down this path, you will see 10 times the scale of what has happened,” Gandhi warned.
