Sack Amit Shah, my advice to PM: Rahul Gandhi doubles down on use of force claim
NEW DELHI, JULY 29 : Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday refused to apologise for his remarks in the Lok Sabha accusing Union Home Minister Amit Shah of authorising the use of force against student protesters, and renewed his call for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sack the Home Minister.
Hours earlier, Gandhi’s remarks had triggered a political storm during the Lok Sabha debate on the anti-paper leak Bill, with NDA MPs demanding an apology and asking him to substantiate his allegations. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla also intervened, reminding the Leader of the Opposition that allegations made in the House must be backed by evidence.
“Sack Amit Shah, that’s my advice to PM Modi,” Gandhi said at a press conference at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi.
The Leader of the Opposition claimed he had been assured he would be allowed to continue his speech if he apologised, but said he would “never ever apologise” to the BJP or the RSS.
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“Rajnath Singh and Kiren Rijiju were allowed to speak multiple times. I was given an assurance that if I apologised, I would be allowed to continue. I will never ever apologise to the BJP or the RSS,” Gandhi said.
He asserted that it was his right as Leader of the Opposition to raise issues of national importance and said the police action against students protesting the alleged NEET paper leak was the most pressing issue before the country.
“To me, the most important issue today by far is that our students, people who are open-minded and ask questions, were brutalised,” he said.
Reiterating his allegations, Gandhi claimed students were fired upon with pellet guns and alleged that one student was likely to lose vision in one eye.
“One boy who was shot with a pellet gun is most likely to lose his eye. I have seen the AIIMS medical certificate which shows that he was shot with pellet guns,” he claimed.
The Congress leader also alleged that police used “shock batons” and “lathis with nails” during the crackdown on protesters, including against women and minors.
“Where did the police get this idea from? Lathis with nails beating women and minors,” he said, adding that he had seen a police officer slap a protester.
Gandhi further alleged that he had personally seen Amit Shah directing police officers during the protest.
“When we were at Parliament House, I saw with my own eyes Amit Shah calling the police officers. I saw Jitendra Singh getting call after call from Amit Shah. It was pretty clear he was aware of what was going on,” Gandhi claimed.
The allegations had earlier sparked protests from the Treasury benches, with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju demanding that Gandhi substantiate his claims.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh rejected the allegations as “factually incorrect”, asserting that no bullets were fired and no order to open fire had been issued during the protest.
The uproar over Gandhi’s remarks came ahead of the Lok Sabha passing the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026 by voice vote on Wednesday.
The legislation introduces sweeping changes to the anti-paper leak law, including stricter punishment of up to 10 years’ imprisonment and a Rs 50 lakh fine for offenders.
-PTI
