New Delhi: Amid repeated disruptions, sloganeering and adjournments, the Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, which provides for stringent punishment for paper leaks and examination-related offences.The debate, which resumed after several days of deadlock, soon turned into a political confrontation after the opposition leader Rahul Gandhi The government was attacked over police action during the 20 July student protests, drawing sharp criticism from the ruling party.Here are the top developments:A male name Target on Amit Shah, RSSParticipating in the debate on the bill, Rahul Gandhi took a direct dig at Union Home Minister Amit Shah and claimed that his absence from the House reflected “fear”.Rahul said, “I am very happy to see today that the so-called Home Minister of this country does not have the courage to come and sit here… Why is the Home Minister not here today? The Home Minister is not here today because he is scared.”“The Home Minister gave approval to open fire on our students. He put pellets in the blood of our students. He ordered to open fire on Indian students,” he alleged.In another attack on the government, Rahul said India’s education system is “terrible” and “brutal” and accused the Center of privatizing education.He said, “Our education system is terrible, it is cruel…everything is being privatized…it is an extortionate system, it is a cruel, terrible system.”Accusing the RSS of controlling the Education Ministry, Rahul said, “The soul of the system has been captured by the RSS. Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation is superficial because Dharmendra Pradhan never ran the education ministry. The organization running the Education Ministry is called RSS. The person running it is an OSD sitting in the minister’s office,” Rahul said.He further claimed that students were not being allowed to pursue their passions or question the system and were instead being forced to “accept the meaningless history that the RSS fantasises about.”Comments caused uproar, partially deletedParliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju objected to Rahul Gandhi’s comment and demanded an apology.“On what basis have you said this? It is extremely objectionable.” You should apologise,” Rijiju said.speaker Om Birla Immediately intervened and reminded Rahul that the discussion was not on the Home Minister.Birla said, “We are not discussing the Home Minister today.” He asked the Congress leader to provide evidence to prove his allegations.Later, parts of Rahul Gandhi’s speech were removed from the records of the House.Lok Sabha was also adjourned twice amid uproar over his remarks.Government’s counterattackUnion Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal Accused Rahul Gandhi of making “baseless” and “false” allegations over the alleged police action on students.“This was nothing but a pack of lies. He should not be allowed to get away with it. Rahul Gandhi should apologise. This is a serious misuse of the House,” Goyal told reporters in the Parliament complex.He said, “There was no firing. How can Rahul Gandhi make such false allegations? He should apologize in the House and apologize to the country.”Describing Rahul as “disappointed”, Goyal claimed that students have “rejected” the Congress leader.He said, “There is no cure for some people. The leader of the opposition made such baseless and false statements in the House. There was no firing, yet such baseless allegations were made inside the Parliament. I strongly condemn it.”Jitendra Singh criticized RahulResponding to the debate, Union Minister Jitendra Singh accused Rahul Gandhi of politicizing the issue instead of participating in a constructive discussion.He said, “This law has been brought with great sensitivity and it shows the commitment of the Prime Minister.” Narendra Modi Towards ensuring fairness in public examinations. Instead of participating in a constructive discussion or giving suggestions, the opposition is trying to politicize the issue, Singh said.He also criticized Rahul’s conduct in Parliament.He said, “I am shocked by the behavior of the opposition leader. The kind of language he used in Parliament was inappropriate. “Such expressions should not be used in the House.”Singh further said that despite holding the post of Leader of the Opposition, Rahul appears to be ignorant of basic parliamentary procedures.“The post of Leader of the Opposition is one of great respect. It is surprising that he does not know the basic norms of Parliament,” he said.Referring to Rahul’s allegation against Amit Shah, Singh said that no minister can order police action.Singh said, “When Rahul Gandhi claims that Amit Shah has ordered action against students, he has failed to provide any evidence. For basic information, no minister can issue such orders. Such decisions are taken by magistrates, district magistrates (DMs), or sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs). This is basic administrative knowledge, and it appears that he lacks this understanding as well.”Bill passed with strict punishmentLok Sabha later passed the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026 following Jitendra Singh’s reply.The Bill proposes to increase the punishment for those who use unfair means in public examinations to a minimum of five years’ imprisonment, extendable to ten years, compared to the existing provision of three to five years.There is also a provision to increase the maximum fine for criminals from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 50 lakh.For service providers found involved in exam-related offences, the maximum fine has been proposed to be increased from the current level to Rs 5 crore, while the period of debarment from conducting public exams will be doubled from four years to eight years.For organized exam-related offences, the amendment bill proposes a minimum imprisonment of seven years, extendable to ten years, along with a fine of maximum Rs 10 crore, from the existing Rs 1 crore.The Bill also empowers the Center to set up a special task force to investigate paper leaks and other exam-related crimes.Further, it proposes a new section 12A mandating completion of investigation within two months, day-to-day hearing in designated special fast track courts within three months of filing of charge sheet and appointment of special public prosecutors for each such court.Rahul addressed the mediaAfter the day’s proceedings, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the Center of not giving him a chance to speak in the Lok Sabha after he held Union Home Minister Amit Shah responsible for the alleged police brutality during the July 20 CJP march.Addressing a press conference, Rahul claimed that he was assured that he would be allowed to resume his speech if he apologized, but he refused, saying that he would “never apologize to the BJP, the RSS or anyone else associated with them.”Rahul said, “As you saw today, the leader of the opposition was not allowed to speak in the Lok Sabha. Many times, I asked the Speaker to bring order in the House so that I could speak. Many times, Rajnath Singh ji and others were allowed to speak, but I was not allowed to speak. The excuse was that I said something about Shri Amit Shah. I said that Shri Amit Shah was responsible for the brutality that was done.”During the press conference, Rahul demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sack Amit Shah over the alleged crackdown on student protesters and demanded an independent inquiry into the incident, which is being monitored by the Supreme Court.He also claimed that Congress has collected evidence that the police used electric batons, pellet guns and sticks studded with nails to disperse the students.“He was shot with a pellet gun. The boy who was shot with a pellet gun is quite likely to lose his eye and will not be able to see. I have seen the medical certificate from AIIMS, which shows that he was shot with a pellet gun. Not just normal sticks, even sticks with nails were used.” Where did the police get this idea?” Rahul said.He said, “Now there are two possibilities. Either Amit Shah ordered people to be shot with pellet guns, people to be beaten with sticks with nails and electric batons used, or he did not know that this was happening. If he did not know, then he is incompetent. If he gave such an order, then he is guilty. In any case, he has to go. And any child who has been beaten should know this.”BJP hit backResponding to Rahul’s remarks, BJP MP Sambit Patra defended the objections raised by members of the ruling party during the Congress leader’s speech in the Lok Sabha.“Rahul Gandhi alleged that Kiren Rijiju and Rajnath Singh obstructed him, while he himself was not given a chance to speak. First of all, the two or three objections raised by Kiren Rijiju were entirely justified. Those objections were over the use of the unparliamentary word ‘idiot’, which cannot be used on the floor of the House under the rules of Parliament. As Parliamentary Affairs Minister, it was his responsibility to seek clarification on that.
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“Kiren Rijiju’s conduct, body language and choice of words reflected decency, politeness and restraint. He was not angry. In a calm tone he said, ‘We want to hear you. Please do not use the word ‘idiot’, because the House is run as per parliamentary rules.’ Defense Minister Rajnath Singh made only one appeal. He said, ‘Rahul ji, please speak’ and appealed to the ruling party members to listen carefully to Rahul Gandhi. Patra said, what could be a greater example of democratic tradition than this?
