Congress MP Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy on Tuesday accused the central government of not giving the opposition sufficient opportunity to raise public concerns in Parliament about the NEET issue. Speaking in New Delhi, the Congress leader also called on the government to engage with students protesting against it and meet them in person to solve their problems through dialogue.
Referring to the political mandate of the ruling government, Reddy said that it should recognise that it does not have an “overwhelming mandate” and should therefore be more receptive to the views of opposition parties.
VIDEO | Delhi: On 20th July’s CJP protest over NEET issue, Congress MP Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy (@kiran_chamala) says, “…Government have to understand that their mandate is only around 30 per cent. They do not have an overwhelming mandate to govern. Secondly, they are not… pic.twitter.com/yYdM9ixM5N
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 21, 2026
"The government has to understand that its mandate is only around 30 per cent. They do not have an overwhelming mandate to govern," he said.
The Congress MP also claimed that the opposition has not been allowed to effectively participate in parliamentary proceedings. Some adjournment motions made by opposition members were not accepted, and they were not able to talk about the issues they feel are important.
He said that Parliament should be in discussion and debate with both treasury benches and the opposition, not simply the government's legislative priorities.
Reddy also referred to the NEET protests and demonstrations at Jantar Mantar and said the government should have had a dialogue with the protesters much earlier. He cited protests organized by activists and student representatives and said their demands were worthy of serious attention.
The Congress leader said one of the main demands made by the protesters has been the removal of the Union Education Minister. He said the government had not responded to the demand in a satisfactory way or in a meaningful way to the demonstrators who expressed themselves.
He said the Centre must take a more consultative position when dealing with students' problems, especially when a lot of the youth expressed their dissatisfaction with examination-related matters.
The NEET examination is still an extremely sensitive political issue, and opposition parties have been up in arms over how examination management, transparency, and the impact on students have been handled. More recently, students and organisations have been protesting the process.
However, the government has said it is committed to ensuring the integrity of national-level examinations and has taken steps to strengthen examination systems and take action against irregularities where they are identified. Reforms are being made so that the process is transparent and student rights are protected, the government said.
The discussion is representative of the larger political clash in the Monsoon session of Parliament, with the opposition wishing to debate education, governance, and public accountability issues while the government is stuck with its legislative agenda.
As Parliament goes on, education issues such as competitive examinations will likely be one of the subjects of debate between the ruling alliance and opposition parties.
