New Delhi: The Congress on Monday said the opposition’s demand for statements by Home Minister Amit Shah on alleged police brutalities against students and by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Ram temple donation “theft” on the floor of the House cannot be delinked in a last-ditch effort by the government to break opposition unity.
This comes shortly after Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government is ready for a debate in the Lok Sabha on the student protests as well as police action. Shah will reply to the debate, but the opposition should give an assurance that they will not run away from it and listen peacefully, he said.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X that right from when Parliament’s Monsoon session began on July 20, the opposition parties have been “consistent, persistent, and insistent” in demanding a statement from Shah on the “brutalities perpetrated” on protesting youth by the Delhi Police, which operates under his command, followed by discussion of the same in both Houses of Parliament.
Ramesh said the opposition has also been demanding a statement from PM Modi on the “Chanda Chori Chadhava Chori Aastha Dhokha” by the Ayodhya Ram temple Trust, the constitution of which he had grandly announced on the floor of the Lok Sabha on February 5, 2020, followed by a comprehensive discussion in both Houses of Parliament on this matter.
Both these demands have always been declared by the opposition as “non-negotiable”, Ramesh said.
“They cannot now be delinked in a last-ditch effort by the Modi Government to break Opposition unity and solidarity. Such efforts will not succeed,” the Congress leader said.
Earlier in the day, Rijiju told reporters in the Parliament House complex that the government is ready for the debate on the student protests in different parts of the country, but the opposition cannot create any turmoil and resort to any sloganeering during the discussion in the House as well as reply to the debate.
The Monsoon session of Parliament, which started on July 20, has seen repeated adjournments and virtually no business except the debate on the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, which was passed by both Houses.
