NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha on Wednesday plunged into bedlam after leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi blamed home minister Amit Shah for police’s alleged excesses against protesters, including firing, riling up treasury benches as Union minister Kiren Rijiju demanded that he either furnish proof or apologise.He also blamed Hindutva organisation RSS for all the ills afflicting the education sector.Government challenged him to prove his allegation or apologise and declared that they would not let Rahul continue with his speech if he did not authenticate or regret making the charge. “You cannot level a charge to grab a headline and get away with it without providing proof,” said Rijiju.Union minister Jitendra Singh also stressed that police firings are ordered by a magistrate. He also defended Delhi Police in his reply, saying it exercised “utmost restraint” in handling protesters’ march on July 20, a first such assertion from a senior govt functionary.“It was made sure that any casualty does not happen,” Singh said, refuting the allegations of Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi and other opposition MPs that brutal force was used against protesters.
Rahul ties Shah to police action on protesters
Rahul Gandhi demanded Amit Shah be sacked as home minister and a Supreme Court-monitored probe be ordered into use of “lethal force” against young protesters – raising the stakes in the battle of wits with govt over the police crackdown on students.He said Shah either directly ordered use of pellet guns, shock batons, lathicharge and tear gas on students, which makes him “culpable of brutalisation” of youngsters, or he did not know what police was doing, which makes him “incompetent”. “In either case, he has to go,” he said, advising PM Narendra Modi to sack the senior minister.Rahul alleged students are still being threatened, with face recognition and Bajrang Dal being used to scare them. “These are our children and govt has no business threatening them or beating them. They have not committed any crime. They should not be punished,” he said.He said demand for Shah’s sacking was not proforma, raising possibility of the confrontation of last week resuming after the opposition joined parliamentary proceedings to discuss the public exam bill for two days. “Shah is responsible and we are not going to let him get away with it,” he said.The renewed aggression from Rahul came at a news conference that he addressed after he could not complete his heavily interrupted speech in Lok Sabha following a clash with BJP benches over his remarks about Shah.After brief adjournments over an “unparliamentary” word, BJP blocked him when he directly linked Shah to the police crackdown. While his remarks were expunged, BJP led by Union minister Kiren Rijiju insisted he tell the source of his claim or apologise.As per Rahul, he was told he would have to apologise if he wanted to complete his speech, but he replied he would never apologise to BJP or RSS.With Shah’s photograph on the big screen at Congress’s headquarters, Rahul said, “Every child beaten by police should know that this is the man who is responsible for what happened. He takes orders from PM, but he is the man who thrashed you and humiliated you.” He slammed Shah for not coming to LS, saying it shows he is “guilty”.
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At the same time, Rahul said he is proud of students who protested and “they had the courage that their parents did not have” to stand up to BJP.Rahul riled BJP by claiming a student told him about three categories of people – “students” who accept they don’t know everything; those who think they know everything and pretend to be God, and “andh bhakts” who believe the second category is God.He alleged Dharmendra Pradhan, who had to resign as education minister due to students’ stir, was a symbol while the real mess in the education system was created by the RSS.
