Delulu. FOMO. MIA. Clock it. ‘Waste-guna-huiya’. These popular Gen Z expressions were heard at an unlikely place on Tuesday – Parliament – as the government and Opposition held a fierce debate on the anti-paper leak bill – Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026.
Lawmakers of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as well as opposition leader used popular expressions to counter each others allegations and barbs pertaining to the issues of students impacted by recent paper leaks.
BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj, the daughter of the late BJP stalwart Sushma Swaraj, used the popular Gen-Z term, ‘clock ‘it’ — meaning noticing or calling something out — in her dig against the Congress party.
“Where Congress created a policy vacuum, Modi clocked it, if I may borrow the language of Gen Z, and created a solution. All the Opposition did was chase political opportunism.”
Then there was also BJP’s Tejasvi Surya who said the Opposition was “delulu” for believing that youth are supporting it.
“I want to tell the Opposition (that) because of this issue (NEET paper leak), the Opposition thinks that youth are with them, but there is no bigger delulu than this,” he said.
“Youths across the country are watching us and this debate in Parliament and wondering what will come out of this discussion. That common youth who is watching this House from home is not concerned with this “tu-tu main-main,” he said.
“He is not concerned about what happened in this government, what happened in the past, or who was ruling in the states. They don’t care about this,” he added.
“The student who is preparing for the next examination, he is more concerned about who is going to fix the system for the future, and he knows this government under PM Modi’s leadership is trying to fix the system once and for all for the better for his future,” Surya said.
He further said, “And as they say in Gen Z language, you need to fix the source code to fix the system, and that can be done with root and branch reform in our education system.”
Another NDA leader to hit out at the Opposition using Gen Z language was Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Lata Eknath Shinde, who mocked it for the July 20 sit-in protest outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence.
“I would like to sum up the Opposition’s protest in Gen Z language. They were MIA (missing in action) for the first 37 days and did not go to Jantar Mantar. Then came FOMO (fear of missing out), so they held a protest outside the prime minister’s residence. Finally, they became ‘delulu’ (delusional), believing the protesting students would join them, but no one did,” he said.
In his praise for the youngsters for putting out their demands clearly during the protests against exam irregularities, Congress’ Deepender Hooda also used a couple of phrases from Gen Z language. He said that youngsters raised the slogans of ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ and also said “waste-guna-huiya”.
“The Gen Z who were chanting Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s slogan of Inquilab Zindabad. And whenever you would run into them, they would say ]waste-guna-huiya’ and would also demand education minister’s resignation by saying ‘kuchu puchu istifa dedo, aaj humara janamdin hai’,” Hooda said.
‘Waste-guna-huiya’ meaning
“Waste guna huiya” (or vasteguna huiya) is a viral nonsense slang and internet meme phrase that is believed to have emerged from an accidental mispronunciation of the American “Can I get a Hoo Yeah” hype-up trend. It has no literal meaning
Opposition leaders react to Gen Z lingo
It was NCP (SP)’s Supriya Sule who then asked the parliamentarians to stick with discussing the NEET paper leak issue instead of using Gen Z phrases during the debate.
“Why are we getting into the lingo of Gen Z? This debate is not about the Oxford online dictionary as to who knows how many words. We are here for very serious issue,” Sule said.
Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi also took potshots at the government and said if Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to “win over the Gen Z, then videos changing camera angles will not help. The prime minister needs to change the angle of his heart, not the angle of cameras”.
She was referring to PM Modi’s video message that he shared last week in a bid to reach out to the NEET aspirants impacted by the recent paper leak. In the video, Modi acknowledged the scale of the issue and announced that the Centre will move a bill providing for fast-track courts and stricter punishment for those involved.
The chatter surrounding the video remained mostly about the angle of the video and how it was shot.
Anti-paper leak bill debate
The debate on the anti-paper leak bill was taken up in the Parliament on Tuesday as the new bill that aims for stricter punishment and time-bound trials for people accused of exam paper leaks. The ruling dispensation hailed the bill as a milestone and a transformative legislation while the Opposition slammed the government over violence against students and paper leaks.
The bill proposes a minimum jail term of five years and setting up of fast-track courts that will complete the trial within three months from the filing of the chargesheet, among other changes. The proposed law also allows setting up of a special task force to probe paper leaks.
“The most important thing which the PM also mentioned through the video is to ensure speedy justice. We will have special fast-track courts established only for the cases dealing with unfair means in examinations. We have set a time limit in that also. The investigation has to be completed within a span of two months regardless of whether it is a central agency or a special task force,” MoS Jitendra Singh said in the Lok Sabha.
Opening the debate, Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi argued that the government has failed to check paper leaks despite having a law. He also criticised the government over the alleged use of pellet guns and electric batons against the protesters and questioned the behaviour of police in demeaning the dignity of women.
Calling the amendments as “cosmetic exercise”, Gogoi said, “This government is not serious about education. It does not want to bring real reforms. This is merely a showpiece amendment. If that 2024 law was so effective, why has the government been forced to bring such major amendments within two years? The 2026 leak proved that the law was a failure and it will fail again,” he said.
