PM’s call to forgive must be heard by the police and his own party
The Prime Minister’s message was clear. He urgedforgiveness for those who used abusive language against himduring the recent student protests triggered by the NEET exam paper leak. Punishing them, dragging them to court and hounding them, is not the way forward, PM Narendra Modi said in an Instagram video on Friday. It was a welcome intervention, one that recognised that such excesses are best addressed through persuasion rather than prosecution. But if his words are to carry weight, they must be honoured by law enforcement agencies, by his party, and by the troll armies that are affiliated to it or support it. Unfortunately, that seems easier said than done. Ever since the protest was called off on July 25, a relentless backlash is being faced by many who took to the streets. Cases were filed against protestors, notwithstanding the government’s assurance that legal action would not be taken, even as some state governments have, since then, withdrawn cases. Online, self-appointed enforcers of “morality” have shared photographs and videos of those who participated, demanding “action” against them. Trolls have doxxed several of the protestors, making their names, phone numbers, addresses and other personal details public, thus exposing them to sustained harassment. Young women, in particular, have drawn much of this ire. The resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan — one of the key demands of the satirical online platform, Cockroach Janta Party, which led the protests — showed that the government was listening to the youth. The significance of that moment lay in the state recognising that it had to resist its instinct to turn a deaf ear to grievances or to criminalise dissent. The PM’s call to forgive the protestors is an important part of that acknowledgement. But forgiveness cannot remain a sentiment expressed on Instagram while intimidation continues on the ground. Certainly, some of the language used during the demonstrations was crude, falling on old sexist tropes. It was unbecoming of a movement that was otherwise defined by a fresh and creative energy. But while these protests must become an opportunity for the young — and, indeed, the old — to learn from their mistakes, they cannot be used as a pretext for the state and online mobs to target them vindictively. The Prime Minister has spoken. The police and party faithful should listen to him.
- 1The right to protest peacefully is protected under Articles 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(b) of the Constitution, the freedoms of speech and expression and peaceful assembly, though both are subject to reasonable restrictions under Article 19(2) and (3), including on grounds of public order. The editorial's tension between the PM's public call for leniency and continued police action illustrates a recurring governance problem in India, the gap between executive rhetoric and on-ground enforcement, which courts have addressed in cases concerning misuse of public order laws against protestors.
- 2NEET, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, is the single national entrance examination for undergraduate medical courses across India, conducted by the National Testing Agency, and paper leak controversies have previously triggered nationwide unrest, notably the 2024 NEET-UG irregularities that led to Supreme Court intervention and a Central Bureau of Investigation probe. Recurring leaks point to systemic vulnerabilities in centralised, high-stakes examination administration, a domestic policy issue with implications for millions of aspirants and their right to equality of opportunity in education under Article 14.
- 3Doxxing, the publication of private identifying information to enable harassment, can attract liability under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 dealing with stalking and criminal intimidation, as well as provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000 concerning privacy violations, though enforcement against anonymous online mobs remains weak in practice. The editorial's account of cases being filed against protestors despite governmental assurances also raises questions about misuse of criminal process to intimidate government critics, a concern the Supreme Court has flagged in cases involving arbitrary arrests of dissenters and journalists.
- 4NEET-UG is taken by over two million candidates annually competing for roughly one hundred thousand MBBS seats nationwide, making it one of the largest and most consequential competitive examinations in the world, so any credible paper leak allegation directly threatens public trust in a system determining medical career access for a vast pool of aspirants. The scale of youth mobilisation strong enough to force a Union Cabinet minister's resignation signals a significant shift in the political weight of digitally organised, satire-driven youth movements compared to traditional protest structures.