New Delhi: In a no-holds-barred attack, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that Home Minister Amit Shah had authorised police excesses against student protesters, triggering a massive uproar in the Lok Sabha during a debate on the bill to amend the anti-paper leaks law.

Gandhi also took an oblique dig at the BJP and its core supporters by referring to three categories — students, those who think they know everything and pretend to be God, and the “andhbhakt” who believes the second category is God.

Participating in the debate on The Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill-2026, Gandhi claimed that the home minister is not present in the Lok Sabha because he is “scared”. His remark drew objections from the treasury benches.

The home minister “authorised” violent action against students, the Congress leader alleged, referring to the crackdown by security forces during the march to Parliament on July 20 during the CJP-led protest on the NEET paper leak issue.

Speaker Om Birla immediately intervened, saying the discussion was not on the Home Minister.

“We are not discussing the Home Minister today,” Birla said and added that he must provide proof to substantiate his allegations.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju objected to Gandhi’s remarks and demanded he apologise.

“On what basis have you said this? This is highly objectionable. You should apologise,” Rijiju said.

The House was adjourned twice due to the uproar over Gandhi’s remarks.

Speaking with reporters in the Parliament House complex later, Gandhi said, “There can be just two options; the Home Minister gave the order for firing (at protesters), the other is that the Home Minister did not know that there will be firing.” “In the first case, he is culpable. In the second case, he is incompetent, there can be no other option.” “Why is he not coming to the House? Supposedly the brave home minister of India, why is he not in the House? If he has not done anything, why is he not coming? It is my right to speak in Parliament and I should have this right,” Gandhi said.

He also launched a sharp attack on the RSS, accusing it of influencing the education system and shaping what students are taught.

“The soul of the system has been captured by the RSS. Dharmendra Pradhan never ran the education ministry. The man and organisation that run the ministry is called the RSS.

“They (students) have to buy this nonsensical history that RSS fantasises about. Pradhan is the symbol. Your real enemy is the RSS. They are the people who want you to be andhbhakts,” Gandhi said and alleged that all universities in the country have a vice chancellor of the RSS.

Gandhi said he was “very excited” and “reassured” by the student protests over the NEET paper leak issue and described them as an expression of the youth.

He said, “I was very excited, reassured by what the future of this country did on our streets. This was not anger, not violence, not hatred; this was an expression, deep expressions of the youth of this country, of the future generation of this country.” “All parties should respect this expression, including my friends in the BJP. If my friends in the BJP were to go and ask their own children about what their brothers and sisters were doing, they would find agreement among their own children. There is nothing wrong with what happened, and every Indian should be proud,” he said.

Gandhi said a conversation with a group of students gave him perspective on how young people view education and knowledge.

“A good starting point would be a conversation I had with some students, young girls, which gave me a very interesting perspective,” he said.

Recalling the interaction, Gandhi said he asked a student what it meant to be a student.

“The question I asked the girl was that you said you were a student — what does that mean? Does it mean you study in a college, in a school, you read books? She said a student is someone who has an open mind (and) an open heart.

“A student is someone who accepts that he does not know everything. Whatever he knows will be superseded by new knowledge. He knows the universe is dynamic. He also understands that knowledge is constantly changing. The most important quality, she said, that a student has is humility,” he said.

Gandhi said the student also described another category of people who believed they knew everything.

“They are absolutely convinced that they know everything. They believe that the universe is static and they believe that knowledge emerges from inside them. They are arrogant. They don’t listen, they don’t respect other people’s truth,” the leader of opposition (LoP) said and used a word, which was objected to as “unparliamentary” by the Chair.

The remark triggered an uproar in the House, with Speaker Birla asking Gandhi to focus on the debate. Rijiju also objected to the use of the “unparliamentary” word. Gandhi said he was attributing the term to a student and was not referring to any member of the House.

Birla said unparliamentary expressions would be expunged from the proceedings.

Gandhi further said the student told him that the hallmark of a student was that they “wear the truth on their chest”, while the other category needed to create an image.

“And as that image is not true because … is trying to pretend he is God, he has to create this image,” he said.

“I asked about the third category — andhbhakt. He is absolutely convinced that .. (the other category) is God,” Gandhi said.

He said the framework came from an 18-year-old student and argued that the protests, though centred around examinations, reflected wider concerns about the education system.

Referring to the student protests, Gandhi said the parents of these children did not have the courage to face the BJP or the RSS.

“And yet these children, brave, imaginative and powerful, stood there and faced everything that was thrown at them,” he said.

“There is nothing in the BJP or the RSS. The real challenge is facing your own fear. And that is exactly what the students did. They overcame their fear,” the Leader of Opposition said.

“They challenged the idea that you, the BJP and the RSS, could destroy them and their careers. They asked why young people are not being allowed to get jobs.

“They asked why people of different religions are being targeted. They asked these questions publicly, and you could do nothing about it,” Gandhi said.