Every Year, Students Get A New Paper Leak Scandal: Abhishek Banerjee

Launching a volley against the government even as he said his party supports the amendment to the paper leak bill, Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee said governance is not done by headlines, but measured through outcomes. 

"Every year, the government promises a new system. Every year, students get the same old scandal. The names of examinations change. The names of victims change. The names of the accused change, but somehow the crime and the government never change," the Trinamool Congress General Secretary said during the debate on the bill in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Live Updates

Mocking the Centre, he continued, “You say you can monitor satellites. The government says it can track missiles. The government says it can defend cyberspace, yet, somehow confidential examination papers seem to travel faster than the government can detect them. What does it say about the state of affairs under the current government?”

Pointing out that Indian Air Force aircraft were used to airlift papers for ReNEET, Banerjee said the youth did not want all of that; all they wanted was fairness.

The MP, who is also the leader of the Trinamool Congress in the Lok Sabha, alleged that instead of listening to the students who were protesting, the Centre offered them barricades, batons and pellet guns.

"Students don't fear competition. They fear corruption. They don't fear merit, they fear manipulation. They don't fear examinations, they fear the system. And when young people stop trusting the system, democracy itself becomes weaker, so students are not asking for sympathy, they are asking for certainty," he stressed.

'Selective Outrage'

Speaking for the Centre, BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj said the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, seeks to ensure faster prosecution and stricter punishment for offenders.

Slamming the Opposition for what she called an attempt to portray that paper leaks began only after the NDA came to power in 2014, Swaraj said, "It's a transformative amendment. It's not just necessary but the need of the hour. It shows the responsible approach of the Modi government... This is not about whataboutery but about calling out the Opposition's selective outrage. Principles cannot change depending on which government is in power.

"Where Congress created a policy vacuum, Modi clocked it, if I may borrow the language of Gen Z, and created a solution. All the Opposition did was chase political opportunism," she stressed.