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Informist, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026

 

NEW DELHI - Indian National Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge Thursday asked what was stopping Home Minister Amit Shah from coming to the House and making a statement on the police action against protesting students in Delhi Jul. 20, even after the Rajya Sabha chairman's request.

 

"Many opposition MPs today met Rajya Sabha Chairman (C.P. Radhakrishnan) and asked for an apology from the prime minister and a statement by the home minister in the House," Kharge, who is also Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House of Parliament, told reporters. "The chairman then told the parliamentary affairs minister that it is the wish of the House, and his wish as well, that the home minister should come to the House and say something on this."

 

Kharge added that despite the chairman's request, Shah failed to come to the House.

 

"For the past 15 days, the Opposition has been demanding an explanation regarding the excesses committed on students... things that should not have been used such as pellet guns, nailed lathis, shock batons, tear gas," the Congress leader said, wondering what the peacefully protesting students had done to deserve this.

 

"We are not asking for the skies. We are only asking the home minister to come to the House and explain who took these decisions. Was it decided at the police and paramilitary officers' level to use pellet guns and this kind of brutal force?" Kharge said. "What is stopping the home minister from giving a statement on this in Parliament? Why is the prime minister also absent?"

 

He said either Parliament does not exist for the prime minister and the home minister, or they are "afraid" to come and face it. "If he (home minister) had come, discussion would have happened, things would have been sorted," he added.

 

The Congress president said the prime minister "forgiving" the protesters will not do. Instead, the prime minister will have to apologise to the students and their parents "who have been hurt". Kharge underlined that it is the government, and not the Opposition, that is responsible for continuous disruption in Parliament.

The Monsoon Session is scheduled to end on Aug. 13.  End

 

Reported by Asim Khan

Edited by Himanshi Gupta

 

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