'Threatening Violence': BJP Over M Kharge's Remark On Amit Shah In Parliament

New Delhi: The Centre today accused the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of not setting up a national exam body despite knowing there was a need, and blamed the Congress for alleged policy inaction before 2014. The Congress shot back, saying the exam paper leak crisis was the doing of the current government.The exchange erupted and climbed the decibel charts after Union Minister Jitendra Singh moved the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha. It was passed in the Lok Sabha by a voice vote following an extensive discussion yesterday.Singh tore into the Congress, saying the current government had to complete the unfinished task left by the UPA."Why didn't the Congress form a national testing body when the UPA was in power? The prime minister today had to complete the UPA's unfinished task," Singh said. "The UPA in its second term completely ignored a key panel's inputs to stop exam leaks," he said, adding the Opposition's outrage is proof that it is very well aware of the UPA-era exam paper leaks.Responding to the Union minister, Kharge went straight for the police action on protests by young people in Delhi's Jantar Mantar and demanded Union Home Minister Amit Shah to clarify on what he alleged was "police brutality"."Home Minister Amit Shah must give an answer on police brutality. Why is he silent on the crackdown? He must clarify. If not, he must resign," Kharge said. "Driven by the fear of losing power, the government conceded to the demands, though its underlying motive was to protect its own position rather than genuinely address the students' grievances," Kharge said.The BJP raised a strong protest against Kharge's remarks on the home minister, calling them a "threat of violence".Kharge alleged the bill to amend the law to deal with exam paper leaks had been introduced mainly to defuse the charged atmosphere and pacify students and young people who had taken to the streets. The protests over exam paper leak, led by the satirical political group CJP, was called off after Dharmendra Pradhan resigned as Union Education Minister.The amendment bill seeks to raise jail term up to 10 years and fine up to Rs 50 lakh for exam paper leak offences. For service providers involved in such offences, the maximum fine has been enhanced from Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore and the period of debarment from conducting public examinations has been increased from four to eight years.After moving the bill, Singh referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of a high-level task force comprising experts to make the public examination system "leak-proof" and said substantial progress has been made in implementing the recommendations aimed at strengthening the examination ecosystem.