PM Modi most anti-youth: Rahul on violence against CJP protesters

The Congress leader claimed that everybody is "sick and tired" of the way our education system is functioning.

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday, July 20, dubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the “most anti-youth” PM in the country’s history as he accused the government of not just failing the youth but also pouncing on them.

Gandhi’s remarks came after security forces resorted to a baton charge near Parliament Street after thousands of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) supporters, protesting against the paper leaks, allegedly tried to breach barricades while marching towards Parliament on the first day of the Monsoon session.

As CJP supporters, including students, marched towards Parliament, the police tried to stop them and used teargas and lathi-charged them.

“Prime Minister Modi is the ‘most anti-youth Prime Minister in India’s history — He’s so ‘anti-youth’ that he can’t even take the resignation of a failed Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan.

“152 paper leaks. 7.5 crore students victimised. And not a single guilty person punished. Who got the punishment? The hardworking youth,” he said in a post in Hindi on X. He also attached a video message with his post in which he criticised the government and the police for action against the protesting students, whom he supported while terming their demands as “legitimate”. The video also showed pictures of protesting students being beaten up by the cops.

Gandhi said when children raise legitimate questions about education, they are met with batons and detention in response.

“The criminals who leaked the papers roam free — and the students raising valid issues are dragged around, beaten.

“This government is not just failing the youth — it is pouncing on them,” the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha said.

In his video message, Gandhi said this country has a majority of young people and “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the most anti-youth prime minister India has ever had.”

He said the boys and girls who are walking the streets of Delhi are not criminals and they are demanding their rights.

“Their rights are to have an education system that respects them, to have an education system that is fair, to have an education system that is working. There’s absolutely nothing wrong in what they are doing. And it is disgusting what the government is doing and what the police is doing.

“This is absolutely no way to behave. Tear-gassing students, lathi-charging students is not democratic; it is not India’s way, and it is not the way it should be done. They have legitimate demands. The prime minister should accept these demands and do something about it,” he said.

The Congress leader claimed that everybody is “sick and tired” of the way our education system is functioning.

“Everybody is sick and tired of how the RSS has captured our education system and how all our institutions are being run by one organisation. This is a natural response that the young people of India are making, and it should be respected,” he noted.

Gandhi said they have been raising this issue not for weeks or months, but for years as a fundamental problem.

“Modi disrespects all the young people of this country. All they believe in is ‘asatya and hinsa’ which are the anti-India principles,” he alleged while attacking the prime minister for not agreeing to the demands of protesting students.