बेबाक · Editorial
Pellets Before an Inquiry, Forgiveness Before an Accounting: Policing the July 20 March
A NEET-UG 2026 paper-leak protest was followed by allegations of pellet rounds during the Parliament march; the republic must answer with law and accountability, not absolution alone.
What Happened
On July 20, protesters marched to Parliament against the NEET-UG 2026 exam paper leak. The Central Reserve Police Force has identified at least one Rapid Action Force personnel for allegedly firing pellet rounds during the march, with a report expected within a week. Families of injured Delhi Police personnel want their views discussed in Parliament. Citizens injured in public disorder and personnel injured while managing it are not opposing categories; both require the same institution to ask the same question: what happened, who authorised force, against whom, and why. The answer must come from a process, not a press note.
The Core Tension
The dispute is not whether order must be kept near Parliament; it must. The tension is between two duties the state owes at once. It must protect the seat of the legislature and its own personnel from disorder and abuse. It must also protect the right of citizens, students among them, to assemble and petition. Pellet rounds sit uneasily inside that second duty. When a crowd-control method is serious enough to require identification of the personnel who used it and a formal report, proportionality cannot be assumed; it must be proved.
Steel-Manning Both Sides
The case for restraint by protesters is real: the Prime Minister said the language used by some protesters would not suit any civilised society, and abuse of any office-holder or their late mother is indefensible. The case for the students is equally real: a national entrance-test paper leak is not a grievance to be counselled away. It corrodes faith in examination integrity and demands a public answer. Both truths hold. A civilised society does not excuse abuse; it also does not answer a legitimate demand for examination integrity with alleged pellet fire and later magnanimity from the top.
The Evidence Weighs In
The facts on record cut toward accountability. It is the CRPF itself, not an outside critic, that has identified RAF personnel in connection with the alleged firing of pellet rounds and is expected to submit a report within a week. That is reason enough for a public accounting. A public appeal for calm delivered on Instagram, however well-meant, is not a substitute for a clear inquiry, a medical account of the injured, and a fixed answer on whether pellet rounds were fired under orders or in breach of them.
The Verdict
Forgiveness offered by the powerful to the powerless is not justice; it can become its avoidance. The appeal to guide the misguided and to counsel rather than seek legal action against young protesters may be humane, but it risks recasting a policing question as a pedagogical one. The students who marched were raising a real concern about a paper leak. The question the CRPF report must answer is narrow and non-negotiable: were pellet rounds fired at protesters, on whose orders, and with what result. Absolution from the top cannot precede accountability from below. The sequence matters.
The Way Forward
Three concrete steps serve the national interest. First, the CRPF report should be placed before Parliament, with the medical status of injured protesters and police personnel put on record. Second, the examination authority should provide a public, time-bound account of the NEET-UG 2026 paper-leak issue, because left unaddressed, it will summon the next march. Third, the Union government should publish clear, reviewable rules on crowd-control munitions near the legislature, including when pellet rounds may or may not be used. Order and rights are not rivals. A republic keeps both by policing protest with law, not opacity.
A state facing allegations that pellet rounds were fired at protesters owes the country an accounting before it offers absolution.
Your Constitutional Rights
What the Constitution guarantees in this storyCitizens may assemble peaceably and without arms — the constitutional basis of the right to protest.
Fundamental RightEvery citizen has the right to freedom of speech and expression — including a free press and the right to know — subject only to the reasonable restrictions in Article 19(2).
Fundamental RightNo person shall be deprived of life or personal liberty except by a fair, just and reasonable procedure established by law — read by the courts to include dignity, privacy, health, a clean environment and livelihood.
Fundamental RightThe State shall not deny any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws. Like must be treated alike; the law cannot be arbitrary.
Fundamental RightWhat this editorial rests on
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An editorial is the considered opinion of The Mudda desk, argued from the sourced reporting above and written under our published persona, बेबाक. We name institutions and actors; we do not endorse or attack any political party. "The Mudda's Ask" is a citizen's good-faith policy proposal, grounded in the Constitution — not the platform of any party. Translations are faithful — no fact is added in any language. If we are wrong, we will say so. How we work →