NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday witnessed a sharp exchange between Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the House J.P. Nadda over the police action against students during the July 20 ‘Sansad Chalo’ march, with the Congress alleging an assault on democracy and the BJP defending the crackdown as a routine law-and-order response.Raising the issue in the House, Kharge said, “Democracy is not safe. People are not safe,” and urged the government to take action against those who entered the protest site without authorisation. “Those who went there without authorization should be punished by the government,” he said.The remarks came amid a continuing political row over the police action during the student-led march from Jantar Mantar towards Parliament, organised to protest alleged irregularities in competitive examinations. The march was denied permission by Delhi Police and clashes broke out after protesters attempted to breach barricades.Addressing that incident, responding to the Opposition, Nadda defended the police action, saying it was a standard law-and-order measure.“It was a very normal law and order situation that we have to understand. Police acted to maintain the order,” he said, accusing the Opposition of trying to “sensationalise and politicise a law and order activity by the police.”Nadda also said that “any student who is into activism will have to face such a situation,” adding that protests cannot be allowed to override law and order.Drawing a parallel with the Emergency, the Union minister recalled his own experience as a student activist.“I have been a student activist and I was arrested several times from the classroom during the Emergency under Congress rule,” he said, arguing that student activism has historically involved such consequences.The Opposition has repeatedly demanded a statement from Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the police action, while the government has maintained that the force acted within the law to prevent an unauthorised march towards Parliament.
