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.
There was a typing error. Kartikey Chouhan is the son of Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. Kartikey earned his Master of Laws (LLM) degree from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.
To bring about a sea-change in India’s educational system, it needs to be mandatory that all ministers and government officials educate their wards in government schools, colleges and universities. If this is not done, government educations beginning with rural primary schools, will languish for lack of a much-needed facelift. But the fact is the pathetic situation (lack of basic amenities namely proper light and ventilation, proper & safe school building including safe drinking water and separate girls’/women’s toilets) continues because almost all top ministers and government officials’ wards study in elite schools/colleges/universities, mostly abroad. If this is so, improvement of our education system and foolproof conduct of examinations (beginning with board examinations) will be only on paper without any government accountability. A look at the following instances makes the argument crystal-clear:
Union Education Minister (who stepped down very recently) Dharmendra Pradhan’s daughter, Naimisha Pradhan, completed a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree from Tufts University in the USA, but there are no prominent official or verified public records showing that his son also received education there.
Former Education & Minority Affairs Minister Smriti Irani’s stepdaughter Shanelle Irani completed her Master of Laws (LLM) degree at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. Her son Zohr Irani (Son): Graduated with a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) in Management from Warwick Business School at the University of Warwick, UK, attending from 2019 to 2022.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s son, Dhruva Jaishankar, holds overseas undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from the United States: a Bachelor of Arts in history and classics from Macalester College and a Master of Arts in security studies from Georgetown University.
Nirmala Sitharaman’s daughter Parakala Vangmayi studied economics and social sciences from London School of Economics, UK. Northwestern University: Earned a Master of Science degree in Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in the United States.
Piyush Goyal (Minister of Commerce and Industry): Son Dhruv Goyal and daughter Radhika Goyal both studied at Harvard University, with Radhika also studying at Oxford.
S. Jaishankar (Minister of External Affairs): Son Arjun Jaishankar graduated with a BA from New York University, and son Dhruva Jaishankar studied at Georgetown University.
Rajnath Singh (Minister of Defence): Son Neeraj Singh completed an MBA at the University of Leeds in the UK.
Piyush Goyal (Minister of Agriculture): Eldest son Kartikey Chouhan earned a master’s degree in law from the University of Pennsylvania.
Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia (Minister of Communications): Son Mahanaaryaman Scindia graduated from Yale University, and daughter Ananya Raje graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design.
J.P. Nadda (Union Minister / Party President): Son Harish Nadda earned a master’s in law from the University of London.
Hardeep Singh Puri (Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas): Daughter Tilottama Puri graduated from the University of Warwick and then did her LLM from University College London (UCL). She is now settled in the US.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah is, however, among those ministers who didn’t send their children abroad. Shah’s son, Jay, has done his B.Tech from Nirma University, Ahmedabad.
Wouldn’t it be too much to expect that the wards of our well-connected ministers would give up their cosy life and come back to India to fulfil our PM’s dream of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’? Even in the Indian Budget allocation, Education is given a low priority! Central allocation accounts for roughly 2.6% of the overall Union Budget. The result, we have a continuous brain- drain, with our top brains making America rich and powerful! ! Can we really pursue a genuine Trade Deal with the US?
The agitation of youths led by Cockroach Party (CJP) has been called off (on 25 July) by 5 pm after the resignation of the Union Education Minister, one of their principal demands. In its press statement, the CJP said that the government assured it that it would also meet its other two demands namely financial compensation of INR one crore for each of the deceased NEET students and withdrawal of all FIRs against them. After the agitation was called off, Rahul made a brief and insipid press appearance. He looked clearly pale-faced that the agitation had been called off. He had a pipedream of being catapulted to India’s premiership, a la Nepal and Bangladesh, riding the shoulders of CJP and other disgruntled political outfits. But India’s astute PM and his advisers abruptly took the wind out of his sail! However, the loopholes in our educational system, especially in high-stake examinations like NEET (22,79,743 registered aspirants in 2026) and UPSC, MUST be plugged on a war-footing. At the same time irrespective of high stakes, students must remember that their life is invaluable and under no circumstances, they should consider taking their own God-given lives. This is atrocious and calls for parents of ambitious students to constantly monitor their movements and to always encourage them to look out for the rainbow. Failing to succeed in one’s dream profession, under no circumstances, justify suicides.
Regarding plugging loopholes in our competitive examinations, have we ever heard of cancellation of Chartered Accountancy Examinations or CAT examinations of top-notch IIMs due to leakage of questions papers? Never. Then why not allow these premier institutes conduct NEET and UPSC examinations instead of the union government doing so with so many goof-ups?
Another good option would be for the Union Government to totally wash its hands off conducting the NEET examination and leave it to the respective state governments. Let them break their heads within their own states. The union government can hold a CAT test for all doctors when they want to apply in central government institutions like All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), and the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh. CJP has proved that today’s youth are very alert and they cannot be taken for a ride!