‘Who ordered you to use pellet guns?’ Gogoi tears into govt in LS, says anti-paper leak Bill ‘showpiece’

New Delhi: Opening the debate for the Opposition on the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi, before he turned to the Bill, pressed the government for a reply on police action during the march to Parliament called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on 20 July.

“We saw police use pellet gun, police attack women, slapping them in protests, and we saw their tears, hence we were asking again and again, who ordered you to use pellet guns, tear gas, to hit not on legs but head?” Gogoi asked. He said the Opposition was not against the Bill or the discussion on it, but wanted an answer on the use of force.

Union Minister of State Jitendra Singh moved the legislation, which amends the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024.

Singh said the amendment proposes to raise imprisonment for those using unfair means from three-to-five years to five-to-ten years, and the fine from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 50 lakh. 

For service providers, or those leaking the papers for a fee, it proposes to raise the fine from Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore, and the bar on conducting examinations from four years to eight. 

In cases involving an organised gang, it proposes to raise imprisonment to seven-to-ten years and the fine to Rs 10 crore. 

“We will have special fast track courts established only for the cases dealing with unfair means in examinations,” Singh said, adding that investigations must be completed within two months.

The minister described the 2024 Act as “the first of its kind in the history of independent India” and listed paper leaks he attributed to earlier governments, from the 2009 Railway Recruitment Board case to the 2013 Maharashtra secondary certificate examination. He said National Testing Agency (NTA) was constituted in 2017, and recommendations for a common testing agency made in 1992 and in 2010 had not been acted upon.

Gogoi termed the proposed legislation “a showpiece Bill”. 

“If the law came into force in 2024, then how were there so many paper leaks in 2025 or onwards?” he asked. On the NTA, he asked how the government shunted 47 officials when its sanctioned strength was 34.

He placed the status of the NEET-UG 2024 investigation before the House. 

“Out of the 45 people charge-sheeted in the NEET-UG 2024 paper leak case, 44 have already been granted bail,” he said, citing a 2026 report.

He said then Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who has since stepped down over NEET-related irregularities, had earlier stated: “Where has the paper leaked? There has been no paper leak.” Gogoi said Pradhan’s removal did not restore faith in the department, and told the House that 21 students died by suicide during Pradhan’s tenure.

Gogoi said the government’s priorities were misplaced. “Instead of discussing paper leaks and solver gang in Cabinet meeting, PM Modi said ‘focus more on Instagram’,” he said. He added that when Pradhan entered the Parliament premises after his resignation, BJP MPs “welcomed him as if he had returned from fighting a war with Pakistan”.

Gogoi opened his speech with the floods in Assam, seeking a relief package for the state, where he said at least 70 people had died.

For the treasury benches, BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj led the reply, first among 13 NDA speakers that included Tejasvi Surya, Anurag Thakur and Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde. The Congress has lined up Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, K.C. Venugopal and Gogoi to speak on the Bill.

Speaker Om Birla had allotted six hours for the debate. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju offered more, saying he had spoken to the floor leaders of the Congress, Samajwadi Party, DMK and NCP. “If you require an extra two hours, the government has no objection…If even more time is needed beyond eight hours, we are ready for 10 hours discussion,” he said.

The debate ended the Lower House’s part in the logjam that had run since the session opened. In the Rajya Sabha, the Opposition’s demand for a statement from Amit Shah on police and Rapid Action Force’s (RAF) handling of the student protests continued to hold up business, as it had at the previous sitting, when the Upper House did not transact any legislative work for a sixth day and notices under Rule 267 were rejected.

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)

Also Read: After NEET protests, Modi govt’s anti-paper leak Bill proposes 10-yr jail, Rs 50 lakh fine for offenders