Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that the Opposition must be “on the streets” if the country’s students are protesting, amid demonstrations by young people as part of the Cockroach Janta Party’s protest over alleged examination irregularities and the police action during its march to Parliament on Monday.

He also demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologise for the police crackdown. During Monday’s protest, security personnel fired tear gas shells and carried out a lathi-charge to disperse protesters in Central Delhi.

The leader of the Opposition made the remarks at a press conference a day after he, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav were detained by the Delhi Police outside the prime minister’s residence, while protesting against the police action against the demonstrators. They were released hours later.

Gandhi began the press conference by playing a compilation of videos purportedly from Monday’s protest which showed security personnel assaulting protesters, including a woman being slapped and another protester being beaten with a lathi. It also showed security personnel pointing weapons at demonstrators and injuries that a protester claimed had been caused by pellet guns.

The Cockroach Janta Party has also claimed that the police had fired pellet guns at the protesters. The Union government classifies pellet guns as a “non-lethal” weapon for crowd control. Its cartridge contains pellets made of rubber or plastic, which can damage sensitive parts like eyes when fired from a short range.

The Delhi Police has denied using pellet guns against the protesters. It also claimed that the protesters “resorted to large-scale violence” and vandalised public property.

On Wednesday, The Hindu quoted an unidentified person at Lady Hardinge Medical College as saying that at least one of the 80 protesters injured had sustained pellet gun injuries and was undergoing treatment at the hospital.

“What wrong have our students done to have security forces aiming weapons at them, beating them up,” Gandhi asked on Wednesday. “They are asking for what this country owes them.”

He said that the Opposition supports three demands raised by the students – the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, action against those responsible for the use of force by security personnel during Monday’s protest, and an apology from Modi.

“Dharmendra Pradhan should be shown the door, he is incapable of holding the post,” the leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha said.

He added that those who ordered and carried out the action against protesters should be held accountable.

“The man who is running this entire system, the man who is finally accountable to all this, should have the decency to apologise to the students for what has happened,” he said in reference to the prime minister.

Gandhi claimed that 152 examination paper leaks had taken place over the last decade and affected around 7.5 crore students and their families.

“The best part is that there have been zero convictions in the last 10 years,” he claimed.

He also stated that the system is not just “rigged” but also made “unaffordable” for the students.

“One exam costs the families who take this exam the same amount of money as our entire education budget,” Gandhi said. “At the same time every year, Rs 1.32 lakh crore similar amount is spent by the families who are taking the NEET exam. This is pure theft from these families, nothing else.”

He said the Opposition had first approached Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking a discussion on the matter, but no debate was held, prompting them to stage a protest outside the prime minister’s residence on Tuesday.

Gandhi also claimed that some police personnel who escorted him after his detention expressed support for the protest.

“The police personnel dragged me away and took me from the protest site,” he said. “But while doing so, many of them were telling me, ‘Please remove this government’.”

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

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