By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, July 23, 2026: The All India Catholic Union (AICU) has demanded that the Union Government table “without delay, a comprehensive White Paper on the crisis in education in India” following police violence against students protesting at Jantar Mantar, India’s protest square.
Founded in 1919, the AICU — Asia’s largest association of Catholic laity — said “India’s young cannot be governed by denial. They deserve an honest, public reckoning, not evasive briefings and baton charges.”
AICU National President Elias Vaz declared, “The AICU stands with the young women and men of Jantar Mantar, and with every citizen who still believes that dissent is not a crime in a democracy, but its lifeblood.”
He added that “images of young women and men… driven back with batons and tear gas shells has shocked the democratic conscience of people.”
Local media reported Delhi Police saying nearly 180 people were injured, including 118 security personnel and 60 protesters July 20 after police used tear gas and batons to disperse thousands of youth as they tried to march toward Parliament.
The union “condemns, in the strongest terms, this lathi (baton) charge and tear gassing of students and job aspirants,” criticizing police “high-handedness meted out even to Mr. Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition, and several other senior political leaders.”
“These were not rioters,” the statement said. “They were students, engineers, teachers-in-waiting and unemployed graduates, many of them women, who had done nothing more than ask their government to keep faith with them.”
The AICU stressed that “Articles 19 and 21 guarantee the right to assemble peaceably and the right to life and personal liberty… These are not privileges extended at government convenience; they are the bedrock of the Republic.”
Calling for “the unconditional release of all detained students, medical care and compensation for the injured,” the union reiterated its demand for a White Paper “laying bare the NEP’s failures… the repeated compromise of NEET (India’s single largest medical entrance test) and other examinations, the human cost of Monday’s police action, and a credible, time-bound roadmap for education reform and youth employment.”
India’s Catholic bishops on July 21 has already condemned the police crackdown on students participating in a peaceful protest march in the national capital, calling it “a heartbreaking assault on the very soul of our democracy” and urging the government to engage in dialogue.