Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Friday sharpened his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, accusing the government of trying to “silence” India’s Gen Z by filing FIRs against student protesters and taking down their social media accounts.
Event Context
The Congress leader made the charge in a post on X, deepening a standoff between the Congress and the BJP that has dominated the ongoing Parliament session over alleged police action against students protesting the NEET-UG paper leak.
“PM Modi and Amit Shah, you cannot threaten Gen Z into silence,” Gandhi wrote. “First you broke their bones. Now you are filing FIRs and taking down their accounts. You are India’s past. Be careful about how you treat India’s future.”
The remark builds on days of confrontation triggered by the July 20 “Sansad Chalo” march at Jantar Mantar, where students protesting the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak alleged the police used excessive force, including pellet guns, to disperse them. The Congress says FIRs were subsequently filed against several protesters and that some students’ social media accounts were blocked, even after the demonstrators had called off their agitation.
The BJP has rejected the charge and accused Gandhi of exploiting the protests for political mileage. Party MP Rahul Sinha said the Congress leader was “using Gen-Z as a support for his politics” in the absence of a fresh electoral mandate of his own, adding that true politics required “engaging with the public and earning their mandate.”
Gandhi’s Friday post followed his repeated questioning, over the past two days, of Amit Shah’s absence from the House during the row. On Thursday, he asked on X, “Why is Amit Shah so scared of coming to Parliament and explaining the brutal violence against students?” He added that the silence “reeks of guilt.”
The word “idiot” set off an uproar on the treasury benches. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju objected that the term was unparliamentary and asked that it be expunged, saying, “Had Rahul Gandhi not used an unparliamentary word, nobody would have objected.” Speaker Om Birla intervened before proceedings could resume.
The Indian Youth Congress echoed Gandhi’s charge in a separate statement, saying the government had moved from ignoring students’ grievances to using force against them and was now trying to silence young voices through FIRs, adding that every crackdown had only strengthened the resolve of India’s youth.
Team Analysis
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge joined the attack on Friday, saying the government had used force on students ten days earlier and was now going after them out of “a sense of revenge.” Addressing the prime minister directly on X, Kharge wrote that “your government suppressed the youth with batons-Pellet Guns,” and alleged that protesters’ accounts were being blocked while “girls are being doxxed.” He demanded Modi seek Shah’s resignation, saying, “If there’s even a shred of shame left, get Amit Shah’s resignation.”
The row had already turned personal a day earlier, when Gandhi, defending the protests during debate on the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, recounted a conversation he said he had with an 18-year-old protester who divided people into three types. “A student is someone who has an open mind, an open heart,” Gandhi told the House, citing her. He went on to define the other two categories himself: “‘Andhbhakt’ is a person who is absolutely convinced that another idiot is God.”
Gandhi has also pressed for the matter to be examined outside Parliament, demanding an independent, Supreme Court-monitored committee to probe the police action against the July 20 protesters at Jantar Mantar. The government has not indicated it would agree to such a probe.
With neither side backing down, the standoff looks set to carry into the following day’s proceedings, with the Congress pressing for Shah’s appearance and an apology, and the BJP insisting the opposition is politicising a law-and-order matter without evidence.
