Centre’s ‘divide-and-rule’ bid on parliament debate backfires as Oppn calls its bluff

With barely three sittings of Parliament left before the monsoon session concludes, the Centre on Monday (August 10) said it was prepared for a “detailed discussion”, followed by a statement from Union Home Minister Amit Shah, on the brutal police crackdown against student protestors at and around Jantar Mantar on July 20.

The Centre’s offer, dressed up as a bid to end the logjam that has derailed parliamentary proceedings since the monsoon session began on July 20, was, however, neither unconditional nor conciliatory. The political calculations behind it were, in fact, so obvious that it took the Opposition no time to reject the wily armistice despite its pitched demand over the past three weeks for Shah’s statement.

Three weeks of the Opposition’s unremitting demand for Shah’s explanation in Parliament on why and on whose orders the Delhi Police and Rapid Action Force brutalised student protestors on July 20 with shock batons, tear gas shells, and pellet guns had been met with haughty rebuffs from the Centre. With Shah choosing to come to Parliament complex daily but not attend the proceedings of either Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha, the Opposition’s protests derailed House proceedings while the Centre pushed the passage of legislation after legislation amid din without any discussions.

Also read: Jharkhand protest: Students lathi-charged, teargassed; ex-JPSC chairperson arrested

On Monday, the Centre’s stance shifted suddenly but after three key developments.

An editorial, a letter, a protest

First, The Hindu newspaper, on Monday morning, published an editorial titled ‘Either culpable or incompetent’ by Lok Sabha’s Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, questioning Shah’s role in the July 20 crackdown against students.

Second, shortly before Parliament convened at 11 am on Monday, senior Congress MP KC Venugopal shot off a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla requesting him “to direct” the Union Home Minister to make a statement on the floor of Parliament regarding the police brutalities of July 20.

Most importantly, around the time Parliament convened, students protesting in the JMM-Congress-ruled Jharkhand’s capital of Ranchi against exam paper leaks and related issues for the last 17 days had begun a protest march towards the Jharkhand Assembly.

Also read: Ayodhya Ram Temple donation case: Probe complete, chargesheet by Sept-end, say police

It was in this backdrop that, at the customary meeting of the Lok Sabha’s Business Advisory Committee (BAC), while the Opposition reiterated its demand for Shah’s statement and a discussion on the alleged donation theft at Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju informed members that the Centre was willing to concede a “full and detailed discussion on student movements and activities related to that (sic)”. Rijiju’s offer, of course, was conditional on the Opposition “listening patiently to Shah without causing any disruption”.

Two “non-negotiable” demands

Sources in the BAC told The Federal that Opposition MPs, particularly from the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, immediately pointed out that they, along with other INDIA bloc constituents, had made “two non-negotiable demands” from the first day of the monsoon session. First, a statement by Shah explaining the actions of the Delhi Police and the RAF that report to his ministry. Second, a discussion on the Ayodhya donation theft case followed by a response from Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the temple’s Trust was constituted directly by him and with 12 of the Trust’s 15 members being appointed of the Prime Minister’s Office.

Rijiju is learnt to have cited “paucity of time” for the Centre being unable to concede both discussions sought by the Opposition’s INDIA bloc. Sources said Congress’s deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi and Dharmendra Yadav of the Samajwadi Party immediately called out the Centre for “playing tricks” and pointed out that if the government really wanted to have a discussion, it “wouldn’t have allowed a washout” of the past 15 sittings of Parliament.

The Opposition is learnt to have stressed that the session had three sittings left and if the Centre really wanted to end the logjam, it could still agree to discuss both issues. Rijiju, however, stuck to the offer for a discussion on student protests followed by a statement by Shah.

Centre’s whataboutery

By late afternoon, the Centre’s political calculations were all too clear. The protesters in Ranchi had breached the security arrangements leading up to the Jharkhand Assembly. Though their march had largely been peaceful and without incident, unlike the July 20 Chalo Sansad march in which brute action by Delhi Police came in swiftly, the Jharkhand Police resorted to lathi-charge, water cannons and tear gas shelling when the protesters broke through three rings of barricades to enter the Assembly complex premises and were barely 200 metres away from storming the main Assembly building. At the time of writing this report, at least three students had been injured in the police crackdown that followed.

Also read: Asking Amit Shah to resign: Why it is Congress' boldest gambit yet

The BJP was quick to latch on to the happenings in Ranchi and point fingers at the Congress and the wider Opposition in Delhi. Union ministers JP Nadda, Jitan Ram Manjhi and senior party MPs Nishikant Dubey, Sudhanshu Trivedi and several others from the ruling NDA coalition asked why Rahul Gandhi and the Congress were silent on the police crackdown in the INDIA bloc-ruled Jharkhand and accused them of “hypocrisy” for questioning the Delhi police action against students.

Simultaneously, Rijiju waded in with another swipe, claiming that while the Centre had accepted the Opposition’s demand and offered both a discussion in Parliament on all student protests and a statement from Shah, it was now the “Congress and the Samajwadi Party that have some difference of opinion”. Rijiju hinted that while the Congress was demanding a discussion on the students’ protests, the SP was seeking a debate on the Ayodhya donation theft case and since there was time left in the monsoon session for only discussing one of the two issues, the two Opposition partners were at daggers drawn.

Opposition puts up united face

Unfortunately for the Centre, the Opposition, in a break from the past, was uncharacteristically adroit in calling this bluff. Speaking separately but in the same voice to reporters, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress’s Gaurav Gogoi maintained that “the Opposition is united in its demand for a discussion on both issues” and that “this was never an either/or option”.

Congress’s communications chief Jairam Ramesh, too, promptly posted on X that the Opposition’s demand for Shah’s statement “on the brutalities perpetrated on protesting youth” and for Modi’s statement “on the Chanda Chori... by the Ayodhya Ram Mandir Trust” had been declared “non-negotiable” since July 20 and that the two “cannot now be delinked in a last-ditch effort by the Modi Government to break Opposition unity and solidarity”.

Also read: SC’s conundrum: How to end cases protesting students faced

The forceful assertions by Akhilesh, Ramesh and Gogoi put paid to the Centre’s hope of planting acrimony in the Congress-SP ties by pitting the demand spearheaded by one against that pursued by the other.

Deft handling of Jharkhand issue

Meanwhile, Rahul, along with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, too acted with alacrity to blunt the Centre’s other charge—that of the Congress and INDIA bloc’s “hypocrisy” in reacting to the Delhi and Ranchi police crackdowns. Kharge and Rahul rushed to convene a press conference where they not only reiterated the Opposition’s steadfast demand for Shah’s statement as well as a discussion on the Ayodhya donation theft matter but also condemned the police action in Ranchi.

“The use of force against students protesting in Jharkhand is wrong. Students have a right to peaceful protest, and only dialogue can yield solutions. The Jharkhand government must continue to hear these students out and resolve their issues immediately,” Rahul wrote on X shortly after telling reporters at his press conference that his party “condemn(s) any form of violence against students who are protesting peacefully. “It doesn’t matter where this is happening; we are against it and do not support it,” he asserted.

The Opposition appears to have called the Centre’s bluff. Whether the Centre has a countermove isn’t immediately known. Meanwhile, the revised list of business issued late Monday evening for proceedings of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on Tuesday do not mention the discussion on student protests or Shah’s statement that Rijiju waxed eloquent about at the BAC meeting and to the media.