New Delhi: Union Minister of State Jitendra Singh on Wednesday took a jibe at Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi, saying that the July 21 Congress sit-in near the Prime Minister’s residence at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg, depicted “Gandhi’s frustration since his desire to stay at the PM’s official residence has not been fulfilled”.
The MoS for the Prime Minister’s Office remarked while speaking in the lower House during a discussion on the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, which the Lok Sabha has now passed.
Singh said: “On July 21, the Leader of the Opposition went to stage a sit-in near the Prime Minister’s residence, at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg (LKM). I don’t know what he was thinking at that time…after thinking over it, I realised that maybe, since he had been longing for so many years that the country will choose him as the Prime Minister and accordingly, he will get to be at 7, LKM…now since that desire of him was not fulfilled, he went at the door of the Prime Minister’s residence filled with frustration and hopelessness.”
“When attempts were made to make him understand that such an act does not suit him (LoP Gandhi), he asked to be taken away. Despite not wanting to do so, when the police requested him to move away, all of them shamelessly left the area,” he added.
Further lashing out at the Congress, Jitendra Singh said: “…They were initially hesitant to join the protest as they thought it as a movement of the Aam Aadmi Party but when they realised that the agitation has gained momentum, as a fellow MP was saying yesterday in the language of Gen Z, they (Congress) were “MIA”, which means Missing in Action and also FOMO, Fear of Missing Out, due to which they went for the sit-in.”
Referring to a quote of Mirza Ghalib, the MoS said: “When they were taken away from the spot, the scene that they created…there is a quote of Mirza Ghalib, ‘Bade beaabru hokar tere kuche se ham nikle, bhohot nikle mere armaan lekin firbhi kam nikle’…the unfulfilled desires of being housed at the 7, LKM, was revealed in many ways throughout the last week.”
Further, Jitendra Singh responded to several statements made by various Opposition speakers during the debate on the anti-paper leak Bill.
“Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi had said that atrocities were committed against innocent students. Maybe he doesn’t know that utmost restraint was exercised and it was ensured that casualties do not take place…but later I thought that he was speaking from his own experience because from 1979 to 1984, 860 innocent people, most of them students, were killed during the protests of All India Students Union in Assam. Congress was in power at that time,” the Minister said.
He added: “So, they thought that just as we (Congress) killed students to oppress their agitation, they (Centre) too might be doing the same.”
Shifting the attack to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Singh recalled that the Congress MP had claimed that “paper leak happened 152 times”.
“I don’t know from where she got that number; there’s no authentication. She had further said that the 152 paper leaks affected 750 crore students…which means 7.5 billion, while the entire population of the world is about 8 billion, and you have 7 billion children in India. I don’t know where this figure came from; either there is some mischief or it is ignorance,” he said.
Regarding Priyanka’s statement that no action had been taken against paper leak accused after the 2024 anti-paper leak Act, Singh responded: “Maybe she didn’t note that 52 FIRs have been lodged in the last two years since the Act was implemented.”
Meanwhile, the Union Minister mentioned: “I am pleased to say that the chargesheet against the NEET paper leak accused was filed yesterday, and their trial has begun from today under a new law, whose verdict would be delivered within five months.”
(IANS)
