Parliamentarians on Monday referred to the drowning of the three private coaching centre students here to express concern over increasing centralised entrance tests and “commercialisation” of education.

During Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj slammed the AAP government in Delhi, stating that its “utter and absolute apathy” led to the tragedy at the Rau’s IAS Study Circle coaching centre. “This is criminal negligence.... I urge the home ministry to form a committee to investigate the deaths,” she said.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor sought to fix accountability for the lapses that led to the incident. He said no amount of ex gratia can compensate for the loss of life of a “brilliant student” who wished to serve the nation.

A short-duration discussion was conducted in the Rajya Sabha, too, on the tragedy. Five members, including three from the BJP, moved notices to suspend the listed business of the day for discussion on the tragedy under Rule 267. Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar allowed a short-duration discussion on the matter. During the three-hour discussion, the Treasury and the Opposition blamed each other for “negligence by authorities”.

Declining quality of education in public institutions, closure of public schools and growing dependence on coaching were the common points in the speeches made by the Opposition parties. The government rejected the criticism over the centralised entrance examination and said single entrance at the national level was the brainchild of the UPA government.

Before the discussion was taken up, Ramgopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party raised the issue during Zero Hour and said that the entrance tests, which ask only objective-type questions, have destroyed the analytical abilities of candidates and forced them to get training from coaching institutes.

“...The National Education Policy and the competitive examinations have affected the all-round development of students. Students are not studying in detail because of the objective-type questions. Please bring back the old examination pattern that gave educationist Dr Radhakrishnan and scientist Meghnad Saha to the nation,” Yadav said.

On the deaths in Delhi, Rajya Sabha BJP member Sudhanshu Trivedi accused the Delhi government of being negligent. He said the drains were not maintained and the storm water overflowing from the drain entered the institute’s basement. AAP MP Sanjay Singh countered “The officials do not listen to the state government. You have tied the hands of the Delhi government.”