For days now the whole country has been watching those protests at Jantar Mantar. Students were out there angry about the paper leaks, especially the NEET mess that has ruined so many young lives. Tempers were high, police had stepped in hard, and somewhere in the middle of all that chaos a few videos started going around. In one of them a young woman from Noida, Ruchika Singh, was seen using really strong language against the Prime Minister — the kind of words that make you flinch. The clip spread like wildfire. Within no time police had registered a case against her. People started taking sides. Some said this is pure disrespect and she should face the music. Others said these are just frustrated kids and we shouldn’t turn every angry word into a criminal case.
And then, this evening, Modi put out a short video.
He didn’t shout. He didn’t sound hurt or angry. He just said, very calmly, “Abuses never solve anything. Let’s guide the misguided. Let’s work together. Let’s work for Bharat.”
He went on to say he has forgiven those students. He doesn’t want them dragged into legal trouble. He wants them counselled, guided, and somehow brought into the larger effort of building the country. That was the heart of it.
You know how these things usually go. Someone abuses a big leader and the response is either silence or a tough statement about “action will be taken.” This felt different. It was almost like he was talking to the kids themselves rather than issuing an official line. He has been doing these short videos to the youth for the last week or so — first the late-night one about paper leaks, then the thank-you message for all the suggestions people sent. This one just took it a step further.
Of course, not everyone is buying it. Some people online are saying it’s a clever political move, that the real issues — the leaks, the police action, the demands for accountability — are still hanging. The education minister already resigned under pressure, but the protests haven’t fully quieted down. Others are genuinely moved. They’re saying only a confident leader can absorb personal abuse, including stuff said about his late mother, and still talk about guiding the young people instead of punishing them.
I keep thinking about the parents of those students. Imagine your child is out there in the protest, someone films an angry moment, and suddenly the whole country is talking about FIRs and court cases. And then the person who was abused turns around and says, leave them alone, let’s just guide them. That has to feel different, even if the bigger problems remain.
Modi didn’t name anyone. He didn’t go into the details of the video. He simply treated the abuse as a sign of frustration rather than a personal attack that needed matching fire. In a time when social media rewards the loudest and the angriest, that choice stands out.
Whether this actually changes anything on the ground is another question. Will the cases really be dropped? Will there be real conversations with the students instead of more force? Will the paper-leak problem finally get fixed properly? Those answers will come later. For now, the message is out there in his own voice: abuses solve nothing, guide the ones who went off track, and let’s try to work together.
It’s a simple thing to say. Doing it is harder. But at least someone at the top said it out loud tonight.
Sources:
– Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video message posted on X on 31 July 2026
– Coverage by WION, ET Now and other channels that shared the same video
– Earlier reports on the Jantar Mantar protests, the paper-leak agitation, and the FIR against Ruchika Singh from NDTV, The Hindu, Indian Express and police statements in the last week of July 2026
@Rohit Manral