‘Minister lied’: Privilege motion against Jitendra Singh for ‘no firing’ remark

KC Venugopal said the statement was made Wednesday afternoon when Jitendra Singh was replying to a discussion on the government’s anti-exam paper leaks bill.

3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jul 31, 2026 05:45 PM IST

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K C Venugopal (File)

Congress leader KC Venugopal moved a privilege motion against Union Minister Jitendra Singh Friday over his remark that no firing took place when student-protesters marched on Parliament on July 20.

In an X post Venugopal said the minister ‘blatantly lied on the floor of parliament’.

“LoP Rahul Gandhi met a pellet gun victim in front of the media… there are countless meda reports documenting victims of such firing and hospital records have also emerged of victims suffering from injuries from such firing,” Venugopal said. “The government cannot get away with such obvious falsehoods in Parliament. There should be action against the minister.”

Venugopal said the statement was made Wednesday at 3 pm, when Singh was replying to the discussion on what the government has said is a strengthened anti-exam paper leaks legislation.

Moved a Privilege Motion against MoS Jitendra Singh for blatantly lying on the floor of Parliament and claiming that ‘no firing took place’ in response to the peaceful protests of our students.

LOP Sh. @RahulGandhi ji met a pellet gun victim in front of the media, there are… pic.twitter.com/4J52xVXMv2

— K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) July 31, 2026

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The Congress MP repeated what he claimed the minister said – “Secondly, it has been repeatedly clarified that no firing took place at all… the question of giving such an order does not arise…”

“Contrary to the honourable minister’s assertions, firing did occur,” Venugopal claimed, “and the injured person is still under medication, with data available in the public domain. By falsely claiming on the floor of the House that no firing took place, the minister has knowingly and deliberately provided incorrect information and misled the House.”

The motion underlines the opposition party’s continued attack on the government over alleged police brutality on students and others taking part in the protests on July 20.

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Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has led that attack, with fiery comments about Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the Lok Sabha; Gandhi’s remarks led to fierce protests and the expunging of parts of his speech from parliamentary records.

Parliament on Thursday night passed the anti-exam paper leaks Bill, with Jitendra Singh declaring it reflected the government’s “openness to incorporate constructive inputs, learn from experience and further strengthen the law” to deal with exam paper leaks.

Asad Rehman

Asad Rehman is with the national bureau of The Indian Express and covers politics and policy focusing on religious minorities in India. A journalist for over eight years, Rehman moved to this role after covering Uttar Pradesh for five years for The Indian Express. During his time in Uttar Pradesh, he covered politics, crime, health, and human rights among other issues. He did extensive ground reports and covered the protests against the new citizenship law during which many were killed in the state. During the Covid pandemic, he did extensive ground reporting on the migration of workers from the metropolitan cities to villages in Uttar Pradesh. He has also covered some landmark litigations, including the Babri Masjid-Ram temple case and the ongoing Gyanvapi-Kashi Vishwanath temple dispute. Prior to that, he worked on The Indian Express national desk for three years where he was a copy editor. Rehman studied at La Martiniere, Lucknow and then went on to do a bachelor's degree in History from Ramjas College, Delhi University. He also has a Masters degree from the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia. ... Read More

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