Rahul Gandhi suggests 4 steps for Cong-ruled states in education sector

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has asked the chief ministers of all Congress-ruled states to prepare a report on the academic and vacancy calendars, create a fool-proof system to stem paper leaks in state-level examinations and roll out the Rohit Vermula bill, which has been cleared by the Karnataka government, against caste discrimination in a bid to create an alternative education model.

During a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), Gandhi—backed by general secretary Kanhaiya Kumar—suggested four key areas to focus on in the state-level education sector in the wake of the student protests that led to the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as the Union education minister.

“Gandhi, who has launched the Chhatron ki Goonj programme to reach out to the students, wants the states to create an academic calendar for more academic clarity to help the students and the administration. He also asked the states to come up with their own plan to check paper leaks for state-level exams and the CMs have also been told to enact Rohit Vemula Act,” said senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.

The Congress-led Karnataka government has approved the Rohith Vemula (Prevention of Discrimination, Exclusion or Injustice) (Right to Education and Dignity) Bill, 2026 in April this year.

On Thursday, the Congress also attacked the government over the NCERT’s decision to include four members linked with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in its reconstituted Textbook Development Team for class 11 and 12 political science.

The Opposition party said that on one hand, the BJP-RSS are doing “shuddhikaran (purification) which is a sin,” and on the other hand they are doing “sanghikaran of textbooks which is a curse”.

The NCERT has reconstituted the Textbook Development Team for class 11 and 12 political science with a mandate to integrate cultural rootedness, Indian knowledge systems and inclusion, with at least four of the members having direct or indirect links with the RSS.