New Delhi [India], July 21 : Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said it was "unconscionable" for the government not to keep a discussion in Parliament on the student protest in Delhi and the police action that occurred during the march, and urged the Speaker to intervene directly to break the ongoing deadlock in the House.
Tharoor accused the Centre of being "stubborn" about the issue, questioning which place is more suitable for discussions than Parliament.
"This is a really unfortunate situation. As I said, what Parliament is for is for discussion. We have a number of issues that are burning up the nation, including this capital city. We've seen what happened yesterday. And in these circumstances, if Parliament is not the forum to discuss them, then what is the forum? The government's being unfortunately very stubborn about these things," Tharoor told reporters outside Parliament.
The remarks come amid a stormy Monsoon Session of Parliament, with the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha witnessing repeated adjournments since Monday due to continuous sloganeering over the NEET-UG paper leak issue from opposition leaders.
Tharoor said the scale of the events in the protest makes it important for the government to keep a debate.
"I think the Speaker should just take matters in his own hands and resolve this deadlock in Parliament by inviting an open discussion on the entire situation -- the student protests, the hunger strike, the lathi charge, the violence... 100 people are in Ram Manohar Lohia hospital. How can you ignore such a matter?... It is unconscionable on the part of the government," he said.
Urging the Central government to de-escalate tensions, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor demanded swift action over the NEET-UG paper leak, which majorly triggered the CJP-led protest march to Parliament.
"They should take action (on NEET controversy) and should diffuse all these protests. These students are citizens of this country, they are the future of this country. Don't treat them like this," he said, referring to the ongoing controversy over the NEET-UG paper leak.
Echoing similar sentiments, former Chhattisgarh CM and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel also weighed in on the situation, accusing the government of failing across multiple fronts and fuelling public anger through its inaction.
"The government has failed on every front. Be it the issue of students, farmers, or employment -- the government has proven to be a total failure on all accounts. That is why public anger has grown so much that people everywhere are protesting," Baghel said.
Baghel said the government had ignored student demands for weeks. "What happened yesterday was unprecedented. Regarding the students' movement -- students have been protesting for a month, yet the government didn't even meet them," he said.
This comes after a march by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) towards Parliament on Monday, demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, left many injured, with Delhi Police stating that more than 118 police personnel were injured alongside reports of many protesters being injured.
Several opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Pawan Khera, KC Venugopal and Arvind Kejriwal, have similarly criticised the government's handling of the protests.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has also said that "students were beaten for asking legitimate questions about their own future" and demanded a detailed discussion in Parliament's Monsoon Session on the alleged brutality against students and the NEET examination paper leak crisis in a post on X.