India’s opposition parties on Friday launched a new offensive against Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s government, demanding answers regarding reports that police used pellet guns against student protesters in New Delhi. Authorities have denied these allegations.
Opposition lawmakers staged a demonstration in parliament, seeking explanations from Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. This came after reports and videos on social media showed injured protesters, with posts claiming they were shot with pellet guns during a march to parliament on July 20. Delhi police, who, along with paramilitary forces, were deployed in the capital to maintain law and order, denied earlier this week that they used pellet guns against protesters. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Home Affairs reiterated this denial.
History of use and concerns about crowd control tactics
Pellet guns, which fire small metal or plastic pellets, were used in 2016 to disperse protesters in Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority region in India that has faced militant violence. Although there were reports of their use during farmers’ protests in Delhi in 2024, police also denied those allegations at the time. Any confirmed use of such weapons in the national capital would draw increased scrutiny to the crowd control tactics employed by law enforcement.
“This brutality is absolutely unacceptable”, said Sagarika Ghose, a lawmaker from the All India Trinamool Congress party, in an interview with Bloomberg News. She added that the use of force against “unarmed students who were legally protesting is absolutely illegal”. According to Ghose, a local hospital confirmed that a young man was injured by a pellet gun during the protest, and her party is conducting an independent investigation.
Context of student protests and government response
Thousands of young Indians have been protesting in New Delhi for several days, demanding government accountability and the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. This unrest followed the leak of examination materials for the national medical exam, which led to retesting and, according to protesters, student suicides. Earlier this week, police used batons and tear gas to halt their march to parliament.
Modi attempted to quell public outrage by promising expedited court proceedings and severe penalties to prevent future leaks of examination materials. Meanwhile, the controversy over the alleged use of pellet guns has provided the opposition with a new avenue for criticism, as it seeks to broaden the discussion of the exam scandal to include the government’s approach to dissent and the accountability of security forces.
Rahul Gandhi, leader of the main opposition Indian National Congress party, referenced the case of a protester who lost sight in one eye to challenge the police’s assertion that pellet guns were not used.
Source: Bloomberg
