Patil argued that the question about ST status had to be answered by the Tribal Affairs Minister, and not by him. Referring to the Opposition MPs’ demand for CBI inquiry into the incident, he said that the CBI was “overburdened” and therefore, it took a long time for the report to come. At this the Opposition NDA staged a walkout even as the Home Minister maintained that he had not ruled out CBI inquiry.

Speaking on this issue earlier, many Opposition MPs blamed the Congress Government in the state for violence. Rijiju demanded Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s resignation on moral grounds even as Speaker Somnath Chatterjee reminded the members that they cannot levy allegations against someone who was not in the House to respond.