NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi Tuesday stepped up his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his “will forgive them” remark for students accused of abusing him and his late mother during the anti-paper leak protest at Jantar Mantar.“Students are in severe pain, they don’t need PM’s forgiveness; Modi needs to apologise instead,” Rahul Gandhi was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.Directing his attack at BJP’s ideological mentor, the Congress leader said: “Behind the thinking of the Prime Minister, his colleagues, and the RSS lies a very dangerous and caustic idea”.“These people believe that the histories, identities, and languages of India’s diverse states are irrelevant, and that only the language and history defined by the RSS are important. This is why students are out on the streets. India will never accept its cultures, languages, or histories being trampled by anyone. They are defending the idea of India in their own way. RSS can’t change our history; India will not tolerate its history to be trampled upon by anybody,” Rahul Gandhi said.In an Instagram video posted on Friday night PM said that he will forgive young protesters accused of abusing him and his late mother, saying they are misguided children and it is “our job to show them the right way”.“Nothing is more painful than seeing a parent grieve their child. Behind every young life lost is a family carrying pain that will never leave them – and serious questions about a broken education system,” Gandhi said in a post on X where he also shared images of his interaction with parents and students.Last week on Wednesday, during the Lok Sabha proceedings, Rahul Gandhi attacked the government over the police action during the July 20 student protests, drawing sharp rebuttals from the treasury benches.Participating in the debate on the Bill, Rahul Gandhi took a direct swipe at Union home minister Amit Shah, claiming his absence from the House reflected “fear”.“I am very happy today to see that the so-called home minister of this country does not have the courage to come and sit here… Why is the home minister not here today? The home minister is not here today because he is scared,” Rahul said.
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“The home minister authorised the shooting on our students. He put pellets into the blood of our students. He ordered the students of India to be shot,” he alleged.Launching another attack on the government, Rahul said India’s education system was “terrible” and “cruel” and accused the Centre of privatising education.“Our education system is terrible, it’s cruel… Everything is being privatised… It is an extortion system, it is a brutal, terrible system,” he said.Alleging that the RSS is controlling the education ministry, Rahul said, “The soul of the system has been captured by the RSS. The resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan is superficial because Dharmendra Pradhan never ran the education ministry. The organisation that runs the education ministry is called the RSS. The man who runs it is an OSD sitting in the minister’s office,” Rahul said.He further claimed students were not being allowed to pursue their passions or question the system and were instead being forced to accept “the nonsensical history that the RSS fantasises about.”