Congress lawmaker Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday accused the Narendra Modi-led Union government of “stealing the future and dreams of the country’s youth,” questioned the formation of the Nandan Nilekani-led task force and demanded that Prime Minister Modi seek help from education experts and stakeholders to bring a new education policy.
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In her speech in the Lok Sabha, the Wayanad MP further sought accountability, slamming the government for violence against student protesters and for giving a grand reception to former education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who resigned on Saturday following nationwide agitations, as if he were a superstar.
Priyanka Gandhi downplayed the formation of the task force and suggested a policy overhaul after consulting education experts and other stakeholders. “This bill doesn’t have any concrete step to stop paper leaks. The PM should change his advisors. He is totally detached from ground reality. Merely creating a new committee, regardless of its chairman, is not enough,” she said.
Adding that the task force includes a “former IB chief, an IT company owner and a cow urine expert.” Priyanka Gandhi said, “What do they know about education? You are talking about fast-track courts but yesterday the CBI lawyer didn’t even appear before such a court. Blaming the Opposition or playing hollow politics in Parliament won’t help.”
The Congress leader highlighted the plight of the students and narrated her meeting with the mother of a girl student admitted to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital. “What was the reason for this violence, use of water cannons, pellet guns and AK 47? For ruthlessly beating and tearing clothes of women? Do you think the students were terrorists? We are seeking answers. Who gave the order to use pellet guns? Was it the PM or the home minister? Will the home minister reply? The whole country is seeking an answer. Why are you scared of the young people and their voices?” she asked.
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Priyanka Gandhi taunted the PM over his Instagram posts. “You can’t get Gen Z’s support by making videos from new angles. The PM has to change the angle of his heart, not the camera angle,” she said. she said.
An allegation against the new education minister Pralhad Joshi led to protests from the Treasury Bench. Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju and Joshi demanded Priyanka Gandhi’s apology and urged Speaker Om Birla to remove the reference as it violated House rules.
At the end of the speech, referring to her theft charges, Rijiju quipped, “Priyanka ji has stolen Rahul Gandhi’s speech.”
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“We have seen major thefts in your tenure; Vote chori, chanda chori (Ram Mandir donation theft), your industrialist friends usurping resources, stealing farmers’ lands. But you committed the biggest theft when you stole the future and the dreams of the country’s youth,” Gandhi said during the debate on The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, which she maintained “lacked concrete steps to stop paper leaks.”
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