Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra launched an attack on the media on Wednesday, August 12, in response to questions about the deadlock in Parliament. The Wayanad Congress MP asked why journalists were so concerned about the disruption of parliamentary proceedings and still not speaking up about police action on a student protest, she said.
Priyanka questioned whether the Opposition should be expected to keep silent about issues that need to be addressed in a situation where it feels serious, she asked reporters outside Parliament. “Should we remain silent the way you do?” she said at a press conference when asked by reporters about the continuing logjam. She also called on media to answer questions about lathi-charge, pellet gun and other police action against students during the July 20 ‘Sansad Chalo’ protest.
Priyanka’s comments came as Parliament was disrupted and the opposition continued to push the government for answers on a number of problems. The conflict has increasingly focused on the alleged police crackdown on protesting students and Congress leaders are demanding an explanation from Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Parliament.
The Congress leader had also made her position clear earlier this week, saying the deadlock would continue until the Home Minister spoke in the House. The Opposition has linked the demand to police action against students at Jantar Mantar and has sought to know who authorised the action and how the situation unfolded.
The Parliament impasse has also extended beyond the student protest issue. Opposition parties have raised allegations related to the Ram Temple donation controversy, and the FCRA Bill has become another point of political contention. Normal legislative proceedings have been affected by the government and Opposition being sharply different.
Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress president, said yesterday the Opposition was not changing its position. He said that the Opposition had three main demands that needed to be addressed before the deadlock could be resolved.
Kharge said the first demand was the alleged lathi-charge and firing during the student protests. The Congress president said the Opposition wanted to know who issued the orders and sought a statement from the government in Parliament explaining the circumstances surrounding the police action.
Kharge also referred to the alleged injuries suffered by protesters. He claimed that more than 100 students were wounded and that several others were wounded by pellet guns, while some were hospitalised or became unwell. Parliament should be given an official account of what happened.
The third issue raised by the Congress president is what the Opposition has referred to as “Chanda Chori” or irregularities in the Ram Temple donations. Kharge said the government should address the issue and that an apology was also being sought.
But the government has rejected the Opposition’s characterization of the dispute and accused Congress and other Opposition parties of repeatedly changing their demands. Union Minister JP Nadda has particularly criticised the Opposition for what he said was a shifting “goalpost.”
Nadda said that the Opposition had initially asked Amit Shah for a statement on issues like the NEET-UG paper leak, the students’ protest and alleged police action. As soon as the Home Minister was ready to speak in Parliament, Rahul Gandhi and the Opposition shifted their demand into a discussion on the Ram Temple donation controversy.
The conflict has created a political stalemate in which they both maintain that the other is to blame for the disruption. The Opposition says that its demands are accountability-based and that they need answers from the government, but the ruling side says Parliament should be able to function and the Opposition is expanding the scope of its demands.
Priyanka Gandhi’s remarks add another layer to the confrontation and bring media into the political debate. The Congress, too, believes public attention should not be focused only on the parliamentary disruption but on the issues that it says precipitated the protests in the first place.
The question remains: will the government and Opposition find a way to reach a consensus or a statement that would allow parliamentary business to resume as normal? The two camps are firmly entrenched; Congress wants answers from the government and the government says the Opposition is always changing its demands.
