Amit Shah on the Delhi Police Crackdown: “Ready To Discuss Queries In Parliament”

In response to the Opposition’s demand that Home Minister Amit Shah appear in Parliament and explain the use of pellet guns in Delhi and AK-47s in Bihar during protests over

examination irregularities, Minister Kiren Rijiju stated on Monday that the government is prepared to discuss every issue pertaining to the student protests, including the police action.

However, the Minister emphasised that the Opposition must refrain from causing a “hungama (disturbance) during the House proceedings.”

“The offer made by the government is very clear that it is ready to have a full and detailed discussion on students’ movement and activities related to it. My only point made to the Opposition, including Congress, is that while the discussion and a reply are being made, the Opposition should not create disturbances to prevent the statement of the Home Minister. They must listen to the reply of the Home Minister and the government,” Rijiju said.  

The concession comes after Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, wrote a column in “The Hindu” today titled “Either Culpable or Incompetent,” in which he notes that the Home Minister has not given a statement or demanded an investigation into the police onslaught on demonstrators.

“His (Amit Shah’s) inaction proves that he approves of the attack on students. He has not ordered any inquiry or even issued a statement. He has refused to come to Parliament, and motions filed daily by the Opposition asking for discussion have been summarily rejected,” Rahul Gandhi wrote in his column.

Rahul Gandhi also spotlighted the use of pellet guns in Delhi and AK-47 in Bihar’s siwan against students, saying that the “government tried to crush the youth’s voice with a brutal assault”.  “They were attacked with tear gas shells, beaten with nail-studded lathis and shot with pallet guns,” Gandhi said. 

In response to Congress Chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s demand last week in the Rajya Sabha that the Home Minister make a speech on police action against demonstrators on July 20, Kiren Rijiju stated that the Opposition cannot choose which minister will address the House and when.

Rijiju asserted that Home Minister Shah visits the Parliament complex every day despite accusations that he does not there. “You all raise slogans and immediately leave the Parliament, whereas the Home Minister stays there from morning until late at night; yet, when he rises to reply, you will not be able to listen. You people lack the guts; you only engage in sloganeering and disrupt business,” he added,” Rijiju had said last week.