Sri Lanka Activists Back Indian NEET Protesters, Slam Modi
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- Nearly 200 Sri Lankan activists, social movements, civil society organisations, and trade unions issued a statement on Monday (July 27, 2026) expressing solidarity with Indian students protesting the NEET exam paper leak and broader education sector concerns.
- The statement accused the BJP under PM Narendra Modi's leadership of adopting "blatantly fascist methods of governance" and declared that "Dharmendra Pradhan has fallen" and "Modi and the BJP have been shaken!"
- The Sri Lankan signatories urged Indian student protesters to "remain vigilant and maintain pressure on the Government to deliver on its promises," citing their own experience with "half-baked" education reforms that bypassed public consultation.
- A small group of activists gathered outside the Indian High Commission in Colombo on Monday carrying placards reading "Educate! Agitate! Organise!" and "Modi, stop the witch hunt of student protesters."
- The solidarity message framed India's student movement as regional: it called on the "youth and working class of the South Asian region to unite and fight alongside one another" and labelled Indian students "the harbingers of change India is in dire need of."
Why it matters: The Sri Lankan solidarity statement adds an explicit cross-border dimension to India's NEET protest, and the signatories' warning about unfulfilled education reforms carries weight because it is drawn from their own national experience. By naming "Dharmendra Pradhan has fallen," the activists claim a concrete political consequence for Modi's government, framing the student movement as already producing cabinet-level fallout.
