July 20 police action triggers clash at House panel meeting in Delhi

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Ajay Maken pressed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs to discuss the July 20 police action against protesters in Delhi, setting off a heated exchange at Tuesday’s meeting.

Congress members said minors had been injured during the lathi charge and argued that the issue belonged before the 31-member panel, which was hearing four ministries on “Crime Against Children”. BJP MP Radha Mohan Das Agrawal, who chairs the committee, declined the demand, citing the Supreme Court’s intervention and the meeting’s set agenda, sources said.

The exchange followed an FIR registered after Rahul Gandhi’s sit-in at Parliament Street police station over alleged pellet-gun injuries to student protester Sahil Lochab.

On August 20, the Supreme Court formed a five-member expert committee led by former judge R. Subhash Reddy to examine allegations that police and security personnel used excessive force against protesters at Jantar Mantar and elsewhere. The panel includes former judges Ravi Shankar Jha and Shalinder Kaur, former CBI director Rishi Kumar Shukla, and retired Meghalaya DGP L.R. Bishnoi.