New Delhi: Lok Sabha on Wednesday witnessed abrupt disruptions after a confrontation between the Treasury and Opposition benches over Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi allegations against Union Home Minister Amit Shah in connection with the police action against students protesting for Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation over NEET paper leak issue.
Participating in the discussion on the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, Rahul Gandhi accused Shah of “ordering police action” against students during the July 20 protests in Delhi.
Rahul Gandhi said, “The remarks triggered a protest from Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, who demanded that Gandhi substantiate his allegations and apologise to the House.“
You are the Leader of the Opposition. Speak with seriousness. On what basis did you make this statement? How can he say that someone ordered firing? It is a breach of his own position and privilege,” Rijiju said.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla also intervened, urging Rahul Gandhi to make statements based on facts and maintain the dignity of the House.
During his speech, Rahul Gandhi, who is a MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli defended the protesting students, saying they had shown courage in standing up to the BJP and the RSS.
Taking a sharp jive at the government, the Gandhi scion said, “The students of the country are saying we will not become ‘andhbhakts’ under any circumstances. This is a beautiful expression. Their parents perhaps did not have the courage to face the BJP and the RSS. Yet these children, brave, imaginative and powerful, stood there and faced whatever you threw at them.”
Coming down on the government, he alleged that students in India were discouraged from questioning authority. He also accused the RSS of exercising control over education system.
“Students are not allowed to be students in India. They are not allowed to ask questions. They have to buy this nonsensical history that the RSS fantasises. Every single university has an RSS vice-chancellor. Your real enemy is the RSS, which wants you to become andhbhakts,” he claimed.
He also said that any resignation by the minister would be “superficial” because, the ministry was effectively being run by the RSS.
“Rajnath Singhji said we are not the UPA and our ministers never resign. He is right. The resignation of Pradhan is superficial because he never ran the education system. The Education Ministry is run by the RSS. The man who runs it is the OSD sitting in the minister’s office,” the former Congress chief said.
Rahul Gandhi also called the country’s education system “terrible” and “cruel”, alleging that rampant privatisation had turned it into a tool of exploitation.
“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,” he alleged.
He had began his speech by recounting a conversation with a student to explain what he called the difference between a student, someone obsessed with image-building, and an “andhbhakt”.
“She said the student wears the truth on his or her chest proudly. I said, what about the other type? She said the other type requires an image. It requires an image and as the image is not true because the idiot is trying to pretend that he is God, he has to create this massive image. I asked her a question: Where does the third category go? That of ‘Andhbhakt’. She said, ‘Andhbhakt’ is a person who is absolutely convinced that another idiot is God,” he said.
“I asked her, ‘What does it mean to be a student?’ She said, ‘A student is someone who has an open mind, someone who accepts that they don’t know everything.’ Then she said there is another group of people who are convinced they know everything, believe they are God and are arrogant,” he said.
His remarks, however, triggered loud protests from the Treasury benches, with Rijiju urging the Chair to expunge what he termed an “unparliamentary word”.
“Had Rahul Gandhi not used ‘unparliamentary’ word, nobody would have objected. I believe that he is using a word in the name of a student, but it is he who is using it… He cannot use ‘unparliamentary’ word, it should be expunged,” Rijiju said.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh also said that it should be removed.
“I humbly request that the unparliamentary word used by the LoP be expunged and I urge everyone on my side to maintain silence and listen to him,” Rajnath Singh said.
Rahul Gandhi also questioned the absence of Amit Shah from the House and accused that he was the one authorising Delhi police of taking action during July 20 march.
“I am very happy today to see that the so-called Home Minister of this country does not have the courage to come and sit here… Why is the home minister not here today? The home minister is not here today because he is scared. The home minister authorised the shooting of our students. He put pellets into the blood of our students. He ordered the students of India to be shot,” Rahul Gandhi said.