The monsoon session of Parliament appeared headed towards a complete washout with the government and the Opposition failing to reach a meeting ground on Wednesday even through Home Minister Amit Shah said he was ready for a debate on student protests, putting the ball in the court of rival parties.Rejecting the proposal, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said the Opposition was “not interested in Shah’s lectures”.Breaking silence on the matter which has agitated the Opposition and wrecked parliamentary proceedings from Day One of the session, Shah said he was willing to sit through a structured debate on student protests over NEET-UG paper leak and answer every question the Opposition had.“There are parliamentary rules and conventions to hold a discussion. The Opposition can write to the Speaker and he can schedule a debate. I am willing to sit through from 3 pm today to 3 pm tomorrow and answer everything. I am being told to make a statement, but that is not how a discussion works in a parliamentary democracy. It is now up to the Opposition to decide whether they want a debate or uproar,” the Home Minister said in a rare statement outside Parliament.Shah followed it up with a letter to Speaker Om Birla, urging him to consult the Opposition and schedule the debate. “I have unshakeable faith in democratic institutions where debate and dialogue are the only way forward to find a solution,” he said in the letter even as the ruling BJP dared the Congress-led Opposition to debate the matter.In response, Rahul said Shah’s call for the discussion was a “last-minute attempt to fill the deflated balloon of his image”. “The youth only want to know one thing–who ordered that protesters be shot at with pellet guns,” he said, reiterating his stand that “if Shah ordered the action, he was culpable; and if he did not, he was incompetent”. “Either way, the Home Minister should resign,” the Congress leader said, triggering a strong response from the government.Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju termed the situation unprecedented and inconceivable. He said the Opposition was “scared of a debate and was running away”.“Here is a government which is ready to debate the matter and an Opposition which is running away. Normally, it is the other way round. I am completely frustrated. This is the first time in my 30 years as a parliamentarian that I am witnessing such a situation,” said Rijiju after the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day without any transaction of business barring the passage of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill-2026 within minutes and without a debate amid Opposition sloganeering.Shah, for his part, requested the Speaker to allocate as much time for the debate on student protests on the NEET-UG paper leak issue as the House wanted. He also took a dig at the Opposition saying people would now decide who wanted to engage in a discussion and who was escaping it.The monsoon session commenced on July 21 and ends tomorrow. It progressed in the shadow of a Cockroach Janta Party-led student protests against the NEET-UG paper leak and the police action on protesters. The Opposition has been demanding Shah’s statement on the police action against students from the start of the session.