New Delhi [India], July 22 (ANI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that Dharmendra Pradhan has “failed as an Education Minister” and “has literally destroyed India’s biggest asset” and said the Congress fully supports the demand for his resignation.
Addressing a press conference here, Rahul Gandhi also demanded accountability for police action against protestors during their ‘Sansad Chalo’ march, saying those who ordered it and those who executed it should be made accountable.
“They (students) have some demands. The first demand completely legitimate demand is that Dharmendra Pradhan, who has failed as an education minister who is known to be corrupt, should be relieved of his duties. 100% legitimate demand. Nothing wrong with it. He has shown India and the world that he is incapable of running this system. Exam leaks are happening one after the other,” he said.
“The second demand is that very single person who raised a finger on our students and it doesn’t matter who is the people who ordered it and the people who executed it should be made accountable. Third thing is that 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 added.
The Congress leader, who has been interacting with students as part of ‘Chhatron ki Goonj’ programme of the party, said that India’s youth face limited job opportunities after completing their education and claimed that manufacturing and entrepreneurship sectors have very limited opportunities and it is difficult to get government jobs.
He said the students have been cornered due to an expensive education and difficulty in accessing jobs.
“Even after you have an education, you become a doctor, you become a lawyer, you learn something, you’re suddenly told that the doors that should be open to you, what your country and your government owes you- a livelihood, a job, is closed. So manufacturing is closed. Look around you, you’ll see there are only Chinese products,” he said.
“Entrepreneurship is closed. Take a look at who gets the money from the banks. Two or three large companies get all the money from the banks. So a young person who wants to be an entrepreneur cannot. Corporate job, AI is destroying it, the IT sector. Public sector being privatized. The only choice they have is a Sarkari job. So you give them one door, you close all the doors, then you rig that system and make it unbelievably expensive. And then you expect they won’t be outside. Which world are you living in?” he asked.
He slammed police action on protestors in the national capital on Monday over their demands about issues in the education sector and said 152 paper leaks occurred in the last decade, affecting 7.5 crore students and their families.
The Congress on Wednesday held protest at Lok Kalyan Marg against police action on protestors during ‘Chalo Sansad’ march.
Rahul Gandhi, who is Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, said the party fully supports the demands of students.
“The thing that is very clear to everybody is that our education system, which was known to be one of the best education systems in the world, is today a rigged system… What we do know is that 152 paper leaks have taken place over the last decade. If you do the math. So one a month approx. Every month, lakhs of students are told that all the stress that you went through you’re going to have to go through again. After that they tell we really don’t care,” Congress MP said.
“Seven-and-a-half crore students and their families are affected by this. These are middle class and poor families. They put their hard earned money into this and then they literally spat on. And the best part of this is zero convictions. In the last 10 years, 152 leaks have taken place and zero convictions. So somebody is or a group of people are destroying our education system, India’s most valuable asset, destroying the lives of our students. What does the government do? Zero convictions,” he added.
He said the protestors were demanding a fair education system.”The question is why is this happening to our students. What exactly have our students done? They have security forces aiming weapons at them. What have they done wrong? They are protesting peacefully, they are making demands, they are asking for what this country owes them. They are simply asking that listen as students of the country, we deserve an education system that is fair. Children have committed suicide. Our students go through unlimited stress and at the last minute they are told that the paper has leaked,” he said.
The Congress leader alleged that India’s education system is not only “rigged” but also unaffordable, claiming that families whose members appear for NEET-UG spend nearly as much as the government’s annual education budget.
“It’s not just that the system is rigged, it’s that the system is unaffordable. This is a statistic that every youngster knows, but somehow the Government of India doesn’t. One exam costs the families who take this exam the same amount of money as our entire education budget. The government of India, after collecting all the taxes, spends money on the future of our children. That money goes into something called the education budget. It is Rs 1.4 lakh crores. 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. And then after you steal from them, you tell them that there’s a paper leak. The thing is rigged. So this is the second reason and legitimate reason why our youngsters are outside,” he said. (ANI)
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