Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that the youngsters “do not need to apologise to anyone,” asserting that “they have defended the Constitution and the idea of India.”
Gandhi made the remarks while addressing the media outside 10 Janpath in New Delhi. His comments come amid ongoing disruptions in Parliament, where both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha have witnessed repeated adjournments due to sustained protests by Opposition members.
He argued that raising concerns over the country’s education system was not a crime, describing it as “a flawed system, a collapsing system, a useless system” that urgently needs reform.
“System needs to be changed”: Rahul Gandhi
“If anything, the system needs to be changed. It needs to be corrected. And that is all they were asking for,” he said.
The Congress leader further mentioned that the protesters were peaceful and accused the authorities of using excessive force against them.
“They were not being violent. They were not being aggressive. They were not being nasty. They were beaten, they were assaulted, and they were threatened,” Gandhi alleged.
He also criticised the alleged coercion of students into issuing public apologies, calling the entire exercise “complete nonsense.”
“First forcing them to apologise, sending goons to their homes, sending goons into women’s homes, forcibly making them apologise, making a 15-year-old girl apologise, and then accepting that apology-that is complete nonsense. We do not accept it,” Gandhi said.
“Change your narrative”: Ria Ahir
Speaking alongside Gandhi, student activist Ria Ahir, who recently went viral after confronting Mumbai Police during the protests, claimed she had prevented the unlawful detention of several students and urged the media to change its portrayal of the incident.
“People say I am the girl who went viral for stopping the Mumbai Police. But I want to tell the media that I am the girl who stopped 20 children from being unlawfully detained,” she said.
Appealing to the media to “change your narrative” and “change your perspective,” Ahir alleged that she has faced sustained harassment since the incident.
“Because of what I did, I have been subjected to immense harassment. I won’t call it trolling because this is not trolling-it is a crime,” she said.