Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday demanded that Union Home Minister Amit Shah must be removed from his post, alleging that he was responsible for “the brutality carried out against students” during their protest in Delhi on July 20.
Gandhi also demanded an investigation by a Supreme Court-monitored high-powered committee into violence against those protesting against the alleged mismanagement of competitive examinations.
The Congress leader noted that the Delhi Police and the central armed police forces report to the home minister.
“There are only two possibilities: either he [Shah] gave the order to shoot people with pellet guns, to beat people with lathis with nails and to use electric batons; or he didn’t know it was happening,” Gandhi said at a press conference. “If he didn’t know it was happening, he is incompetent. If he knew, then he is culpable. In either case, he has to go.”
Earlier in the day, while speaking in the Lok Sabha, Gandhi had alleged that Shah had “authorised the shooting of our students” during the nationwide youth protests.
“He put the pellets into the blood of our students,” the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said. “He ordered the students of India to be shot.”
His remarks triggered protests in the House, leading to an adjournment.
Following this, Gandhi said that he would address a press conference to share what he was “not allowed to say in the House”.
“They can turn off the mic - but not the students’ echo,” he said.
The agitation in Delhi began on June 6, when the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign began a protest at Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Pradhan from his post over alleged irregularities in the conduct of competitive exams. Pradhan resigned on Saturday.
On July 20, thousands joined the protest two days after the police forcibly took activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had been on a hunger strike for three weeks, to hospital. Their march to Parliament was met with a crackdown by the police. Dozens were injured as the police used lathis, fired tear gas shells and pellet guns against the demonstrators.
A day after the pellet guns were fired, the Delhi Police had denied using the weapon against the protesters. However, reports said that the pellet guns had been carried by the Rapid Action Force, a unit of the Central Reserve Police Force that was also deployed at the protest, as part of its riot-control equipment.
The police in the national capital and the Central Reserve Police Force report to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
The police action turbocharged the agitation, which spread to other parts of the country.
Written by Neerad Pandharipande. Edited by Sara Varghese
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