You will have to answer for this crime: Rahul to Shah on police 'brutalities' against students

Published 9 August 2026 · local

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday (August 9, 2026) questioned Home Minister Amit Shah's silence over alleged police brutalities against protesting students and asserted that

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday (August 9, 2026) questioned Home Minister Amit Shah's silence over alleged police brutalities against protesting students and asserted that sooner or later, the BJP leader would have to answer for "this crime". Gandhi said a student told him during his "Chhatron ki Goonj" event in Prayagraj on Saturday (August 8, 2026) that he has "no options left now". "This is exactly what a student told me in Prayagraj yesterday. Years of preparation, selling the family land, parents burdened with debt and yet, nothing to show for it," Mr. Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X. "अब मेरे पास कोई रास्ता नहीं बचा" - कल प्रयागराज में एक छात्र ने मुझसे यही कहा। सालों की तैयारी, घर की ज़मीन बेची, माँ-बाप का कर्ज़ और फिर भी हाथ में कुछ नहीं। यह हार उसकी नहीं है।

यह उस व्यवस्था की हार है जिसने उसकी मेहनत का दाम देने से इनकार कर दिया। तेरह दिन हो गए - गृह… — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 9, 2026 This is not his failure, it is the failure of a system that refused to reward his hard work, the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha added. Several days have passed since the students protesting at Delhi's Jantar Mantar over alleged paper leaks have called off their agitation, yet not a single word has come from Shah on the action taken by the Delhi Police against them, he said. "Instead of apologising, Modiji is busy dispensing 'forgiveness'," Mr. Gandhi said. "Amit Shahji, do not think for a moment that we will stop demanding accountability. Batons and pellets were used against young people on the streets of the capital -- and you did not utter a single word.

Sooner or later, you will have to answer for this crime," he said. Gandhi asserted that students are the light of the nation, and said he stands with them with all his might. Both Houses of Parliament remain deadlocked over the opposition's demand that Mr. Shah should make a statement in both Houses on the alleged police brutalities during the students' July 20 protest over the paper-leak issue. Most of the legislative business has been conducted amid din. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge slammed Mr. Shah last week for not making a statement in Parliament over the alleged police brutalities on students and said the home minister did not come to the Rajya Sabha despite Chairman C.P. Radhakrishnan noting that he should speak in the House. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju told the Lok Sabha on Friday (August 7, 2026) that the Opposition cannot dictate which minister will come to the House and respond to their questions, amid the demand from the Congress and other parties that Mr. Shah should give answers to queries on the recent police action on protesting students.