Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said people were not interested in Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s speech in Parliament "on general topics" and demanded that Shah clarify who authorised the use of pellet guns against protesting students.
The Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have not had the courage to come to the House for over 15 days and neither of them has had the "guts to own up to what they have done."
"It is for students to see and understand that neither the home minister nor the prime minister think that what was done to you in Delhi is worth commenting on," Gandhi said at a press conference alongside Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge at the party's Indira Bhawan headquarters in New Delhi.
He asserted that the question was never about whether Shah can give a speech in Parliament on general issues.
"Question was that home minister Shah has to make it clear who authorised the shooting of our children in Delhi. He is the home minister; pellet guns were fired," Gandhi said, adding he must come clean whether he gave the firing orders or not.
If Shah ordered it, he is culpable, and if he did not know, he is incompetent, Gandhi said, adding that either way Shah "should go".
Rahul's remarks came after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday said that the government was ready for a “full and detailed discussion” on the student protests and that Shah would respond to the entire debate.
Furthermore, Gandhi said the prime minister should apologise for the police action on students during the Janta Mantar protest.
The third issue is the donation "theft" at Ram temple, he said.
The Lok Sabha LoP said that for over 15 days, neither the prime minister nor the home minister has had the courage to come to the House.
In his remarks, Kharge said the opposition wanted a discussion on that and the paper leak issue.
But the government did not say anything for 14-15 days, which shows that they did not want a discussion, Kharge added.
"We kept forcing them, but he (Shah) did not come. The other demand was that PM Modi should make a statement on the theft of Ram temple donations.
"Prime Minister announced the trust and constituted it. Under Modi ji's trusted trustees, theft of donations took place. We wanted the guilty punished and the PM to make statement, but the government did not pay heed to it," he said.
PM Modi should apologise because lakhs of people have faith in the Ram temple and such a big incident happened, but he kept silent, Kharge said.
"These three issues are non-negotiable. We are fighting on all three issues. We stand firm on these three issues; the government must reply on this," he asserted.
(With inputs from PTI)