Desperate and hassled: Congress on Modi's midnight video

The Congress on Friday said the "desperate and hassled-looking" Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally broke his silence on paper leaks with a video message, and claimed that his lack of commitment to accountability is evident from his failure to even mention the student protests or the brutality unleashed on them.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said whatever eyewash the PM proposes, the first steps to any resolution are clear -- "sack Mantri Pradhan; punish those who beat them; apologise".

"The desperate and hassled-looking Pradhan Mantri finally broke his two-month-long silence late last night via a video message to speak on paper leaks," Ramesh said on X.

Remember that the Modi government has long denied that the NEET-UG 2026 exam was leaked, he said.

"The Mantri Pradhan deliberately refused to use the word leak in his press conference and the Education Ministry officially denied that a paper leak occurred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education," he said, referring to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

It is only the outpouring of public anger over the last two months that has made the PM accept the truth, Ramesh said.

"But this is also exactly why students no longer have any faith in the Modi Government. It has consistently prioritised its own cynical political calculations over student interest," he said.

It deliberately buried the evidence of widespread irregularities in the NEET-UG 2024 exam despite the extremely fishy clustering of toppers in a handful of test centres, the Congress leader claimed.

It finally acknowledged that the NEET exam that year underwent what it called a "selective leak" in Hazaribagh, but it has failed to bring justice to the perpetrators. After calling Sanjeev Mukhiya the kingpin of the leak, it is now claimed that he is innocent, he charged.

The CBI has also filed a closure report alleging that there was no paper leak in the cancelled UGC-NET examination of 2024, but has failed to provide any reasons for it, Ramesh said.

"This crisis does not originate in our slow moving judiciary alone, but in the weak investigations conducted by the CBI and the dishonest political leadership of the Modi Government," the Congress general secretary in-charge communications said.

"The Pradhan Mantri's lack of commitment to accountability is evident from his failure to even mention the student protests or the brutality unleashed on them by his police forces on 20th July," Ramesh said.

Modi announced on Thursday night that a bill containing provisions for strong action against paper leaks will be introduced in Parliament next week.

In a video message, Modi also said the contours of the bill will be discussed at a meeting of the Union Cabinet on Friday, where the proposed legislation will be finalised.

"The cabinet will discuss the issue of paper leaks on Friday and after taking suggestions of the cabinet colleagues, further action will be finalised. On Monday, when the second week of the Monsoon session of Parliament will begin, a bill will be brought with provisions for strong action against paper leaks and we will try to pass it as early as possible," he said.

The prime minister said he knows that paper leaks are not a small issue and for lakhs of students and their guardians, such incidents are extremely painful.

Therefore, since allegations of the NEET paper leak surfaced about two and a half months ago, several strong steps have been taken, he added.

"The guilty have been caught. They are now in jail. Our most significant responsibility was to ensure that the students did not lose a year. It was necessary to hold the examination immediately. By using all resources, the government ensured that 22 lakh students could attend the retest," Modi said.

Shortly after, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hit out at Modi for sidestepping the issue of Pradhan's resignation in his video message and said the PM should not insult the intelligence of students with this "pathetic midnight video".