NEW DELHI: Standing with a group of youngsters who faced police action during the NEET protests, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Wednesday said the ruling party is sending goons to the homes of students and forcing them to apologise, after which those apologies are being accepted by the PM.“There is no question of the youngsters apologising… I am very proud of them and what thousands of them did… They defended the Constitution and protected the idea of India and India’s future,” Rahul said.The Congress leader held a “freewheeling” discussion at his residence with a group of youngsters who participated in the protests at Jantar Mantar and other parts of the country. It included Riya Ahir whose photo went viral after she stood in front of a police van in Mumbai and Muskan Sharma who was victim of a cop “jabbing a baton into her buttocks” at Jantar Mantar on July 20. Farah Naaz alleged that in police detention, she faced communal barbs with a cop even calling her “anti-national”. Muskan said she was being assumed to be a Muslim which makes an Indian a “fair game”, even clarifying that she is a Hindu. Nutan Toppo said a pellet gun was fired at her.The leader of opposition’s decision to meet the youngsters to 10, Janpath, for a chat further upped the ante in the “BJP vs opposition” confrontation that has jammed the ongoing monsoon session of parliament.Continuing its aggression, a large contingent of opposition MPs marched inside the Parliament complex to protest the “absence of Amit Shah from parliament” and “Ayodhya donation scam”. The group included Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Dimple Yadav, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Dharmendra Yadav, Supriya Sule, NK Premachandran, Sagarika Ghose, Amar Singh, Chowdry Mohd Ramzan, John Brittas, Sandosh Kumar, Naseer Hussain, K Radhakrishnan.
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Rahul held a placard with a face riddled with pellet gun injuries and a question “who gave the order?” The members also sought statehood for J&K.Addressing the media with the youngsters, Rahul said, “They are so young and standing before the media. But the prime minister and the home minister have no courage to stand before the press.”He attacked home minister Amit Shah by saying that he is responsible for the crackdown on youngsters but “he does not have the decency to come to the Parliament, and the courage to comment on what happened.”Rahul took a jibe at PM Narendra Modi for saying that he has forgiven the students.
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