‘Can't hide behind closed doors’: Kharge lashes out at Amit Shah over police action on student protesters

Congress President and Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge lashed out at the Centre and Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday questioning the latter’s silence over the police crackdown on Cockroach Janta Party’s protest.

Stating that Shah was responsible for atrocities on students, Kharge said he can't hide behind closed doors. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Home Minister are silent on students' protests. If they don't speak up, students would teach them a lesson once again,” Kharge said on the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, taken up for debate on Thursday.

He also questioned if someone had “stitched” the home minister's mouth due to his silence on the crackdown on students. “You are the home minister. This was happening in Delhi. And yet despite all this happening, you did not open your mouth. Has someone stitched your mouth shut?” Kharge said.

Kharge’s remark caused an uproar, following which BJP leaders in the house, including JP Nadda, raised their objections and flagged the statement as “unparliamentary.”

He said Shah cannot remain hidden in a closed room forever. “They are firing pellet guns at children who have come from villages and from other states. One has lost an eye, another has lost an ear, someone else has lost a hand. Who is responsible for that? The Home Minister is responsible. You (Shah) may be listening to me from behind closed doors, but you cannot remain hidden in a closed room forever. One day, we will drag you out," Kharge said, adding that his remarks were not unparliamentary.

"I did not use any unparliamentary language. By 'us', I meant 'janshakti' (power of people) --- people, students, women. I did not say I will drag the Home Minister; I meant that 'janshakti' will drag him out. Listen to me and reply," the Congress MP rebuked.

Kharge continued to attack the government, stating many innocent people were harmed and troubled due to the paper leak. “You have just changed the figures in the Public Examination Amendment Bill 2026 now. Only the figures keep changing, and nothing else is going to happen. You have included provisions like higher fines, harsher punishment, special task force and fast track courts. This is not going to make any difference,” Kharge said.

“To bring this strong law, we had put forth the demand for it in 2024 itself. But then you did not accept our point. In your speech, you voiced the disagreement. But we kept asking you repeatedly n to fix this strong law. Why didn't you do the work then,”Kharge questioned the Centre.

Interestingly, the debate began with the Centre accusing the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of not setting up a national exam body. "Why didn't the Congress form a national testing body when the UPA was in power? The prime minister today had to complete the UPA's unfinished task," Singh said. "The UPA in its second term completely ignored a key panel's inputs to stop exam leaks," he said, adding the Opposition's outrage is proof that it is very well aware of the UPA-era exam paper leaks.

Singh said the bill testifies that this government does not stand on prestige and is open to healthy inputs.

"We are open to constructive suggestions from all quarters, and that's exactly the reason why, in the wake of the recent sequence of events, the PM lost no time to declare that nobody will be allowed to jeopardise the future of our children, and also announced the resolve of zero tolerance to paper leak," Singh said.

To this, the Congress blamed the current government for exam paper leaks.