The Oath That Echoes Shame

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The Oath That Echoes Shame

June 24, 2024: the air in the Lok Sabha was thick with slogans — “NEET, NEET, Shame, Shame”. And right in the middle of that storm, Dharmendra Pradhan took his oath. He has been Education Minister since 2021. For five long years, the opposition has demanded answers from him. Today, in 2025, they are still asking. The slogans have not changed. Nor has the Minister. Even though students have been beaten, their futures looted, the man at the helm sits unshaken. This is the government that broke its silence today — but did it say a single word about police violence? Not one. The Prime Minister’s tweet at 9 am spoke of fast-track courts. Not a comma about the lathi charge. Not a whisper about the resignation that students are demanding.

A Tweet from the Summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “Those who have played with the future of youth will be punished.” He announced fast-track courts to speed up trials for paper leaks. The Home Minister called it a milestone. But read the fine print: no mention of the police assault on students at Jantar Mantar, no mention of the families whose children were beaten, no mention of the Education Minister whose head students want. This is a government that claims it is in dialogue with the protesters. Yet no central minister has visited the protest site. Two ministers did visit Sonam Wangchuk in the hospital, but when opposition MPs tried to meet him, they were stopped. What kind of dialogue is that? Rahul Gandhi’s counter was sharp: “You have done the most damage to youth. You not only allowed the education system to be destroyed, you promoted it and gave protection to every person responsible.”

Fast-Track Courts: An Old Magic Show

Fast-track courts are the government’s favourite card. Play it, and the media sings about a “big step”. But look at the history. The Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh started surfacing in 2009. By 2013, 20 people were arrested for impersonation. In the same year, 345 admissions were found fraudulent. Then the deaths began. 23 people connected to the investigation died — some called it 46. Journalists, a medical college dean — all dead. When the uproar grew, the BJP government ordered a CBI probe. More than 265 FIRs were filed. Over 20 special courts were set up. 650 medical admissions were cancelled. And the result? Dr. Anand Rai, who blew the whistle on Vyapam, reminds us:

“Not a single big officer, not a single big politician, not a single private medical college owner has been convicted. CBI could not file a chargesheet in 90 days against Sanjeev Mukhiya, the mastermind of NEET 2024. Government lawyers, appointed to secure convictions, lost the cases. They were bought once. The whistleblowers — Ashish Chaturvedi, Prashant Pandey, me — we have been living under threat for 13–14 years. My job was terminated. False cases were slapped. And today, the mastermind walks free.”

That is the bitter truth. The NEET 2024 paper leak mastermind Sanjeev Mukhiya was arrested after 11 months, jailed for 90 days, then granted bail because the CBI could not file a chargesheet. November 2025 came, and with it Bihar elections — and suddenly bail. Today, the CBI has given him a clean chit. The same agencies that failed to build a case are now supposed to deliver swift justice through fast-track courts? The Prime Minister’s announcement is not a solution; it is a damage control press note.

Scam/Incident	Year	FIRs/Arrests	Fast-Track Courts	Convictions of Big Names	Current Status
Vyapam (Madhya Pradesh)	2009–2015	265 FIRs, 2000+ accused	20+ special courts formed	None (big names clean chit)	Still ongoing, report sought by SC
NEET UG 2024	2024	Multiple arrests; mastermind Sanjeev Mukhiya	Yet to be formed under new law	CBI clean chit to Mukhiya	Students protest, demand minister’s resignation
UGC NET 2024	2024	Exam cancelled after leak	N/A	No public update	Exam rescheduled amid chaos
Jammu & Kashmir SSB	2022	Paper leak; CBI probe	Not specified	No high-profile conviction	CM Omar Abdullah corrected BJP’s date and pointed out government’s selective outrage

The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, was passed in February 2024 with great fanfare — just before the general election. It came into force on June 21, 2024, two days after UGC NET was cancelled due to a leak. Jairam Ramesh had called it a desperate damage control exercise. He was right. The law promises 5–10 years of jail and a Rs. 1 crore fine. But if the CBI cannot file a chargesheet in 90 days, what will the fast-track court try?

The Student Uprising: Three Simple Demands

The students are clear. Their first demand: remove Dharmendra Pradhan. Second: apologize. Third: compensation for the families of those who died by suicide and action against police officers who ordered the lathi charge. The government says it is talking. But no minister has gone to Jantar Mantar. The Prime Minister’s tweet had no space for these demands. Instead, the Home Minister called the fast-track court decision a “landmark”. Landmark for whom? For the students whose bones were broken? For the parents who lost their children to a system that sells their future? In Madhya Pradesh, a paper leak network operates like an organized loot, and the Education Minister is the top of that pyramid. The government’s message is clear: the minister will not resign. The students can chant “Shame” as much as they want, but the throne is safe.

Bollywood’s Selective Courage

During the farmers’ protests, a string of film stars tweeted identical hashtags — #IndiaAgainstPropaganda — supporting the government. Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, and many others fell in line. Today, a different part of Bollywood has woken up. Arijit Singh wrote: “You are beating students, don’t you feel ashamed? Hello neta, mantri, what is going on? Do you think you are God? Everything will be remembered. Change is the only rule.” He even clashed with fans who criticized him, saying he won’t change his stand even if they remove his songs from playlists. Salman Khan posted a long note welcoming the students’ stand and calling their peaceful protest brave. Diljit Dosanjh wrote, “What happened today was very bad. Students should not be treated like this. The voice of the people is the voice of God. I will be called anti-national again, I have faced backlash and legal trouble after the farmers’ protest, about which I cannot speak.” Naseeruddin Shah’s words carry the heaviest weight:

“I have studied acting at two institutions, but I have learned the most from these children who are trying to teach us. My heart is full and I am furious. These masked goons remind me of ICE agents in America. I want to tell the students: don’t lose courage. Many are with you. Keep fighting. I have always had hope from the youth of this country, and that hope is now even stronger. If it doesn’t drip from the eye, then what is blood?”

This is not a filmi statement. It is a verdict on a regime that breaks elected representatives and parks them into paper parties. In a time when MLAs and MPs are broken, dragged, and forced into new political identities, these voices matter. But why is Bollywood so divided? Because fear has been institutionalized. Those who speak risk their careers, their legal safety. Those who stay silent protect their projects. The same industry that once protested petrol prices now finds its courage in installments.

A System Designed to Leak

Why does paper leak happen? Because from top to bottom, the system is staffed with incompetent, corrupt people. Dharmendra Pradhan is the flagbearer of this rot. Paper leaks are not accidents; they are organized crime. The PM’s tweet about punishment is like applying ointment after breaking bones. The students’ fight is about why bones are being broken in the first place. Accountability is missing. The Education Minister was not even named in the PM’s statement. Instead, the government rushes to announce fast-track courts after 23 days of protests, after lathis have rained. It looks less like governance and more like a public relations exercise. The government is telling you: no resignation, no apology. Take the fast-track court and go home.

The Vyapam monster remains untamed. The Supreme Court is still asking for progress reports. And the BJP never talks about Vyapam — it only mentions paper leaks in Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir. Selective outrage. When Omar Abdullah pointed out that the 2022 SSB leak happened under a different government, the BJP’s narrative hit a wall. Accountability is not a weapon to be aimed only at rivals; it must begin at home. But home is where the Education Minister sits untouched.

The Price of Silence

The government wants you to believe it is taking historic steps. But the history of paper leaks in BJP-ruled states tells a different story. The CBI’s clean chit to Sanjeev Mukhiya is a badge of failure. The Public Examinations Act is a law with no teeth if the teeth are not used on the powerful. Fast-track courts cannot deliver justice when the investigative agencies themselves are either incapable or compromised. The students are not fooled. They sit on the roads, their eyes blackened by tear gas and lathi blows. They demand one simple thing: accountability. And the government offers them a procedural mirage.

Criticisms

• The resignation of the Education Minister should have been accepted immediately, but it was not.
• Police violence against peaceful student protesters must be condemned by the Prime Minister, but it was ignored in his statement.
• The capture of the education system by vested interests should have been investigated, but it was protected.
• Accountability for paper leaks should have been fixed at the ministerial level, but it was deflected to fast-track courts.
• The mastermind of NEET 2024 paper leak was allowed to roam free for 11 months, and later a clean chit was given by the CBI.
• Whistleblowers like Dr. Anand Rai were harassed and terminated, while those responsible for Vyapam were never punished.
• Dialogue with students was claimed but no senior minister visited the protest site; instead, force was used to break the agitation.
• The Public Examinations Act was passed hurriedly before elections as a gimmick, not as a genuine reform.
• Fast-track courts were announced repeatedly in the past without any high-profile conviction in education scams.
• Opposition MPs were barred from meeting injured students, exposing the government’s fear of true scrutiny.