NEW DELHI: Union minister JP Nadda on Monday countered leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, refuting his allegations that the government ordered the Delhi police to fire upon students protesting against the NEET paper leak on July 20.During a press conference, the Union minister accused Rahul of “shifting goalposts” to prevent Parliament from functioning.“Rahul Gandhi keeps shifting the goalposts, both in Parliament and in the narrative, on a daily basis. His objective is not to engage in dialogue but to spread chaos. Initially, at the start of the session, he demanded a discussion on NEET. When we agreed to that, he raised the issue of the Ram Mandir Trust instead; subsequently, he insisted that the home minister make a statement regarding the Jantar Mantar incident. His intention is to prevent the House from functioning,” Nadda said.“He does not want the House to run; that is why he has been disrupting proceedings for the past 15 days while simultaneously pushing for a discussion on the Jantar Mantar issue. Today, when it was decided that the Jantar Mantar issue would indeed be discussed, he began misleading the people and the country by claiming that shots were fired at Jantar Mantar, when, in fact, no such incident occurred,” he added.Nadda’s remarks came hours after the Congress leader, during a press conference, reiterated his three demands, which he termed as “non-negotiables”, to break the Parliament deadlock.The Congress leader demanded that Union home minister Amit Shah tell Parliament who ordered firing against students during the NEET paper leak protest. He said, apart from Shah’s statement, PM Modi should apologise for what happened and called for accountability over the alleged donation theft in Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir.“The question was always that Amit Shah has to make it clear who authorised the shooting of our youngsters in Delhi. Pellet guns were fired, students were beaten with lathis with nails on them. He should come clean. Did he order it or did he not order it? If he ordered it, he is guilty of getting our children shot. And if he didn’t know about it happening, he’s incompetent. Either way, he should go. This was the discussion,” Rahul Gandhi said in a presser.“The question was never that Mr Amit Shah is going to come and give a speech on some general topics in Parliament. Second, the Prime Minister apologises for what has happened. And third was the issue of the Ram temple theft. People very close to the Prime Minister have stolen from the Ram Mandir. These are the three issues,” he added.“We are interested in whether he authorised or didn’t authorise the shooting of our children. First, he should make that abundantly clear. After that, the question of any discussion arises. That is the situation. And that is what the opposition is demanding. That is what we have been demanding for the last 15 days. For 15 days, neither Prime Minister nor home minister had the courage to come to Parliament, guts to own up to what they have done,” he further said.
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For the 16th consecutive day, the Lower House failed to complete Question Hour due to persistent sloganeering by Opposition members. As many as nine bills have been passed by the Lok Sabha during the Monsoon Session, but only two have been debated.Opposition parties have been demanding a response from home minister Amit Shah over alleged police brutality against students protesting the NEET paper leak across the country, as well as a debate on alleged embezzlement of donations from the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
