A three-week parliamentary deadlock persisted on Monday with the government giving in to the demand for Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement on the student protest in a bid to break the logjam, but the Opposition insisting on a debate on the Ram Mandir donation theft too.Hours after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju told the Lok Sabha that Shah was willing to make a statement on the student protest and reply to a debate on the issue “provided the Opposition listened peacefully and did not run away scared”, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi cited not one but three demands.“Our first demand was that the Home Minister should tell the country if he gave the orders of police action on students. If he did, he is culpable. If he didn’t, he is incompetent. Either way, he has to go. The second demand was that the PM should apologise for mistreatment of students. The third was the discussion on Ram Mandir theft,” Rahul said this evening after the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day around 2.20 pm.Reacting to this, Union Minister JP Nadda accused Rahul of deliberately disrupting Parliament for the last 15 days and misleading the country. He said the government agreed to discuss the NEET paper leak issue in Parliament, accepting Rahul’s demand, but the Congress leader kept changing goalposts.The government’s offer for Shah’s reply on the student protest came from Rijiju at the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of the Lok Sabha, which Speaker Om Birla chaired in the afternoon. Later, Rijiju made the same offer in the Lok Sabha, which reconvened at 2 pm after disruptions but the Opposition continued its sloganeering.Sources who attended the BAC meeting said the government, to break the deadlock, offered Shah’s reply or a structured debate on the student protest on the condition that the Congress-led Opposition “participated in it, and did not run away”.The Congress, sources said, did not give any assurance on Rijiju’s offer while Samajwadi Party demanded a debate on the Ram Mandir donation issue. “The Congress also backed the Ram Mandir debate demand,” sources said, adding that consensus eluded the meeting with the government categorically rejecting the temple theft debate demand citing an ongoing SIT probe into the matter by the Uttar Pradesh Government.At the same meeting, the Opposition also demanded that two Bills introduced in the Lok Sabha today—the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill-2026 and The National Cooperative Development Corporation (Amendment) Bill-2026—be referred to a joint parliamentary committee for scrutiny. The government didn’t commit to this.At the BAC meeting, the Speaker also made a fervent appeal to the Opposition to let the Lok Sabha function saying their principal demand for Shah’s statement had been heeded. “The Speaker urged the Opposition to let the House run, but to no avail,” said sources.Soon after the meeting, Law Minister Arjun Meghwal piloted the Tribunals Reforms Bill-2026 in the Lok Sabha when it reconvened and the agenda was passed without any debate as the Opposition continued to protest inside the House.Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi was dismissive of the government offer and said Shah’s statement was an “attempt to mislead the Opposition”.Importantly, with just three days left for the monsoon session to end, the BAC meeting did not take up the agenda of Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act amendment Bill and the Constitution Amendment Bill on delimitation and women’s reservation. Ruling dispensation sources said though with the logjam persisting, nothing stopped the government from moving the FCRA amendments. “This Bill was listed in the previous Parliament session and time was also allotted to debate it. This agenda remains alive, though the bid to move the delimitation Bill looks improbable now,” said a senior BJP source, not ruling out a special session to take up the women’s reservation Bill.