State president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajeev Chandrasekhar has accused the Congress of using the students’ protest to unleash anarchy and violence and challenge law and order by violating the high security zone around Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Mr. Chandrasekhar said that the Union government fully understood the concerns and the anger of the students over the exam question paper leak. The government also understands that the students have a legitimate right to protest.

However, some vested interests are trying to hijack the students’ protest, bring violence into it and threaten the democratic nature of the protest, he claimed.

The NEET exam paper leak was a tragedy and a crime and it has broken the students’ confidence in the system. But this is not the first time this has happened because corruption has always been part of the system, Mr. Chandrasekhar said. The government had done its best to address the issue by bringing the guilty to the book, he said.

He appealed to the youth not to become part of the anarchy and violence that is being unleashed in the country in their name and to ask the politicians who were sympathetic to their cause to fight for them inside Parliament and not on the streets.

If political parties wanted the Union Education Minister’s resignation, they should do it during the debate inside the House.

Mr. Chandrasekhar said that the Congress had nothing to say when the government conducted the NEET exam again in a fool-proof manner and ordered an investigation into the question paper leak. The Congress has no interest in discussing the issue inside Parliament but instead had chosen to deliberately violate the law by breaching the high security zone around the Prime Minister’s residence and create anarchy, all in the name of students, he said.

Mr. Chandrasekhar also criticised Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan for joining the Congress’s protest in front of Mr. Modi’s residence and being a part of the unlawful act, in violation of the oath he had taken.

He said that the violence and anarchy being encouraged by the Congress is part of the politics of desperation to garner attention as the INDIA alliance continues to erode.

Published - July 23, 2026 06:58 pm IST