NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Wednesday demanded that home minister Amit Shah be sacked from the govt and a Supreme Court monitored probe be ordered into the use of lethal force against young protesters — raising the stakes in the battle of wits with the Modi govt over the police crackdown on students.Rahul said Shah either directly ordered the 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 the 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.He alleged the students are still being threatened, with face recognition and Bajrang Dal being used to scare them. “These are our children and the govt has no business threatening them or beating them. They have not committed any crime. They should not be punished,” he said.The leader of opposition said the demand for Shah’s sacking was not proforma, raising the possibility of the confrontation of last week resuming after the opposition joined the proceedings to discuss the bill on “unfair means” for two days. Said he, “Shah is responsible and we are not going to let him get away with it.” The renewed aggression from Rahul came at a press conference that he addressed after he could not complete his heavily interrupted speech in Lok Sabha following a clash with the BJP benches over his remarks about Shah. After brief adjournments over an “unparliamentary” word, the BJP blocked him when he directly linked Shah to police crackdown. While his remarks were expunged, the BJP benches led by parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju insisted that he tell the source of his claim or apologise.According to Rahul, he was told that he would have to apologise if he wanted to complete his speech, but he replied that he would never apologise to BJP or RSS.With Shah’s photograph on the big screen at the AICC 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 the prime minister, but he is the man who thrashed you and humiliated you.” He slammed Shah for not coming to the Lok Sabha, which shows that he is “guilty”.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 the BJP.He said Shah was fully aware of the police action, and he was repeatedly calling minister Jitendra Singh when the latter came to meet him (during dharna outside PM residence).He said the opposition will ensure justice for students one day, as cops responsible for use of pellet guns and batons are identified in videos and photos.In LS, Rahul riled the BJP by narrating that 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.
Join conversation
Share your thoughts in the comments
Be respectful · TOI community guidelines
He alleged Dharmendra Pradhan, who had to resign as education minister, was just a symbol while the real mess in the education system was created by RSS. “The man and the organisation that ran the ministry is called the RSS… They (students) have to buy this nonsensical history that RSS fantasises about. Pradhan is the symbol. Your real enemy is the RSS. They are the people who want you to be andh bhakts,” the LOP said.He complained that he is “silenced” every time he tries to speak in Lok Sabha.He called the bill on unfair means as irrelevant because it is about hiking punishment after paper leak when the demand is to reform the system to make it paper leak-proof.He said Modi has lost his image which was a “balloon” that had been inflated with heavy investments.
