Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan fired a pointed broadside at the Indian National Congress and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday, August 11, 2026, accusing the principal opposition party of spreading falsehoods about student welfare while simultaneously disrupting Parliament — the very institution it claims to defend. Posting in Hindi on X, Pradhan charged that Congress was running a campaign of misinformation on student issues without factual basis. 'तथ्य नहीं है, आदतन झूठ बोलने वाले' ('no facts, a habitual liar') was his characterisation of Gandhi — a leader, he said, who neither wants to attend Parliament nor listen to answers once inside it. The minister accused Gandhi of shedding 'crocodile tears' (घड़ियाली आँसू) while refusing to engage with the government's responses on the floor of the House.

Amit Shah, False Accusations, and Political Desperation

Pradhan reserved particular sharpness for what he described as baseless allegations against Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Levelling charges against Shah without any factual grounding, he wrote, reflects the 'political desperation' of both Gandhi and the Congress party. The government, he insisted, stands ready to debate every issue inside Parliament — it is Congress, he argued, that is 'crushing the interests of the country and its youth' by disrupting the proceedings of what he called 'the temple of democracy.'

The Jharkhand Question Congress Has Not Answered

The sharpest rhetorical weapon in Pradhan's post was a question, not a statement. Citing reported violence against students in Jharkhand — a state currently governed by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in alliance with Congress — he asked why Rahul Gandhi, who holds a press conference on every issue, has chosen silence on this one. 'The entire country has seen the brutality against students in Jharkhand,' he wrote, framing Gandhi's quiet as evidence of a double standard: violence is tolerated where Congress holds political power, and noise is manufactured where it seeks political advantage.

Emergency Shadow and the 'Selective Democracy' Charge

Pradhan closed by reaching back to one of the BJP's most durable rhetorical anchors — the 1975 Emergency imposed by the Congress government under Indira Gandhi, when fundamental rights were suspended and democratic institutions were subordinated to the ruling family's will. Congress, he argued, practices a 'selective democracy': suppressing youth in states it governs and staging uproar in Parliament when it suits the political moment. 'There is no place for authoritarianism in a democracy,' he wrote, 'and the Congress party, which still runs on Emergency-era thinking, would do well to understand that.' The BJP-Congress war of words over Parliament's functioning is a recurring feature of Indian legislative sessions, with both sides accusing the other of obstructionism. What gives this round added edge is the Jharkhand angle — a concrete, state-level flashpoint that Pradhan has now placed squarely at Gandhi's door. Whether Congress responds on the floor of the House or outside it will signal how it intends to play the next session.