Spotlighting a video clip purportedly from Rahul Gandhi’s dharna at a police station in New Delhi, BJP General Secretary Smriti Irani on Friday questioned his very commitment to the demand that an FIR be registered over the alleged use of pellet guns during the youth protest march towards Parliament on July 20.
“How seriously Rahul Gandhi takes this issue is evidently seen on the internet currently, where there are many citizens who have brought to fore videos that show Rahul Gandhi is busy tossing toffees, laughing, and possibly gesticulating at people,” said Smriti Irani, former union minister for human resource development (education), in an exclusive interview with NDTV’s Padmaja Joshi.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers are among X users who have been sharing such a clip, calling Leader of Opposition and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s dharna “pure political theatre”.
This is how serious Rahul Gandhi is..
A police-station “dharna” turned into a toffee-and-games session—workers laughing, eating and yelling “catch out” while he joins in. If this is his concern, the injury is just a prop.
Pure political theatre. pic.twitter.com/xDrpS560Hb
— BJP Sashi Kumar Subramony 🇮🇳 (@BjpSashi) August 21, 2026
Read: “3 Pellets In Eye, 200 In Body”: Rahul Gandhi Protests With Victim, Demands FIR | Live Updates
Irani was asked what the ruling BJP’s issue really was with pellet victim Sahil Lochab’s two-pronged demand, which Rahul has supported with his dharna, that an FIR be lodged and the investigation officer be assigned.
“Investigations are underway,” Irani asserted, speaking about the police action on the Cockroach Janta Party-led protest march. She referred to the recent Supreme Court decision to form a committee to look into allegations related to the youth protests over the NEET paper leak and other issues.
‘Don’t besmirch the armed forces’
“Let us not presume and besmirch the uniformed personnel of our country. That Rahul Gandhi has positioned himself at a police station or outside it for political gains is known to everybody,” she added. She said citizens trust the Supreme Court, “and also the investigating capacities of the paramilitary services and the police force of our country”.
The former Amethi MP, who had defeated Rahul Gandhi from his family seat in UP in 2019, was also asked about the incident in Bihar, where the state BJP-led government has accepted in an affidavit before the Supreme Court that there were aerial shots fired with an AK-47 by a policeman.
Irani responded, “If the government had anything to hide, we would not take a transparent position in front of the Supreme Court. I reiterate: allow investigations to be completed. The paramilitary and police personnel are deployed to ensure that citizens at large are protected.”
She claimed that protesters were being “instigated to create unrest” and that could come to the fore once investigations were completed.
She then launched another direct attack at Rahul Gandhi, saying, “It suits his agenda to besmirch the paramilitary services. It suits the agenda of Rahul Gandhi to besmirch the Indian Army, insult the Indian Army… Morale of such services is delivered a huge blow when somebody in a statutory position that Mr Gandhi is in (as LoP) shows enormous disrespect or casts aspersions on the very character of their service.”
‘3 years away from senior citizenship’
Asked if the central government was still facing a challenge from Gen Z, the young generation at the forefront of the protests, Irani hit back, “Those who serve in the paramilitary forces are also Gen Z. Those who serve in the Indian Armed Forces are also Gen Z.”
She called it “ironical” that “a human being who is currently in a statutory position, (and) three years away from senior citizenship, claims to be youth”. Rahul Gandhi is 56 years old, a fact that PM Modi, too, used for a dig at him at the start of the last session of Parliament on July 20, which also happened to be the day of the CJP march.
Delhi Police has denied the use of pellet guns on the student protesters. The CJP protest ended five days later as senior BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan was replaced as education minister.
