Sack Shah, Rahul tells PM Modi
New Delhi: In a blistering attack on the government over alleged police excesses against students, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sack Home Minister Amit Shah and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the “brutalities”. The Leader of Opposition alleged that he was not allowed to speak in Lok Sabha and everytime he tries to speak there, he is “silenced”.
Either Shah ordered that students be shot with pellet guns and beaten with lathis with nails or he was unaware, Gandhi said, referring to the crackdown by security forces during the July 20 Cockroach Janta Party-led protest march to Parliament. “If he ordered it, he is culpable and if he did not know then he is incompetent,” Gandhi said at a press conference.
“As you saw today, the leader of Opposition is not allowed to speak in the Lok Sabha. Multiple times, I asked the speaker to bring order to the house so that I can speak. Multiple times, (Union ministers Kiren) Rijiju, Rajnath Singh were allowed to speak and the excuse was that I said something about Home Minister Shah,” Gandhi said.
Our system is terrible, it’s cruel… Everything is being privatised… It is an extortion system, it is a brutal, terrible system. The soul of the system has been captured by the RSS,” Gandhi said.
“I said Shah was responsible for the brutality that was carried out. I was given an assurance that if I apologise, I will be allowed to speak. I will never apologise to the BJP-RSS,” he said. It is my right to raise issues that are important to the country, Gandhi asserted.
The “brutalisation of our students” assault on our students is a fundamental issue, he said. Pointing to a picture of Shah on the screen at the press conference, Gandhi said to students, “This is the man who beat you, thrashed you, humiliated you and shot you with pellet guns.”
“We will ensure that the students who were beaten get justice, people who shot students with pellet guns are punished,” he said. So it is our advice to the prime minister to sack Shah, he said.
Earlier, in Lok Sabha, the Leader of Opposition alleged that Shah had authorised police excesses against student protesters, triggering a massive uproar in the Lok Sabha during a debate on the bill to amend the anti-paper leaks law.