The Congress government in Kerala used water cannons to disperse activists of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) who staged a protest in Thiruvananthapuram over the NEET paper leak issue. The protesters were demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and attempted to march towards the Kerala Raj Bhavan on Monday, 20th July, 2026.
#WATCH | Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala: Police used water cannons to disperse the SFI workers demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the issue of the NEET paper leak pic.twitter.com/eaa0DPdKlj
— ANI (@ANI) July 20, 2026
A large number of SFI workers gathered in the state capital and raised slogans over the irregularities in the NEET examination. As the march moved towards Raj Bhavan, police stopped the protesters by putting up barricades to prevent them from entering the restricted area.
During the protest, several SFI activists tried to push through and break the police barricades in an effort to continue their march. As the situation became tense, police used water cannons to disperse the crowd and bring the protest under control. The action briefly led to chaos at the protest site before security personnel managed to clear the area.
The demonstration was organised by the Students’ Federation of India, the student wing associated with the Communist Party, to press for the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET paper leak controversy. Visuals from the protest showed SFI members marching in large numbers, confronting police barricades and facing water cannon action while trying to reach the Raj Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram.
