New Delhi, July 30 -- Opposition MPs, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, protested in the Parliament House complex on Thursday against alleged police excesses against student protesters and theft of donations at the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

The MPs protested in front of Makar Dwar of Parliament. Slogans such as 'chadhawa chor, gaddi chor', 'grih mantri sadan mein aao' and 'who gave the order' were raised by the lawmakers. The MPs also kept a donation box with them and they were seen putting money inside it to symbolise the alleged theft of donations at the Ram temple. Besides Priyanka Gandhi, Congress general secretary K C Venugopal, SP's Dharmendra Yadav, TMC's Sagarika Ghose, JMM's Mahua Maji, among others, participated in the protest.

In a post on X, Venugopal said, "How long with HM Amit Shah hide and not answer the people of India? Why is he MIA (missing in action) from Parliament?"

"We opposition MPs are protesting outside Makar Dwar, demanding a clear answer for who ordered the use of pellet guns against students, and for heckling LOP Shri Rahul Gandhi and preventing him from speaking in the Lok Sabha yesterday," Venugopal said.

The protesting MPs lined up behind a big banner that read 'who gave the order', an apparent reference to the directions to security personnel to use lethal force against student protesters at the recent agitation against NEET paper leak.

Meanwhile, leaders from opposition parties also criticised the Vande Mataram Bill passed by the Lok Sabha, alleging that it violated the secular character of the Constitution, infringed upon religious freedom and sought to impose the full version of the national song despite the Constituent Assembly having accepted only its first two stanzas.

DMK MP Kanimozhi stated that her party opposed the legislation, calling it an attempt to create polarisation.

"The Vande Mataram Bill is against the secularism of our nation. Our founding fathers were very clear that only the first two stanzas should be sung. Now, the government is insisting all the stanzas should be sung. It will hurt the sentiments of people of different faiths," she told reporters.

TMC leader Saugata Roy described the legislation as unnecessary. "This Bill was not needed. We have no objection to Vande Mataram being sung, but Rabindranath Tagore did not want the full Vande Mataram to be the national song. These people have gone even further than Tagore," he said.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.