New Delhi: Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi was detained again on Wednesday, October 7, but was back out within hours after Delhi Police picked him up near Jantar Mantar, where an INDIA bloc protest demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over alleged SIR anomalies was stopped.
Amid chants of Rahul Gandhi zindabad from party workers, Gandhi said from the bus, “Amit Shah, Narendra Modi, Gyanesh Kumar, and Mohan Bhagwat can do all this stuff. But we are going to bring them to justice. It’s my guarantee that all four of them will be brought to justice. This is all a panic reaction. This is all fear.”
“We are not going to stop protesting till (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar resigns. This is a fight to protect the most sacred thing in this country. There is nothing that Narendra Modi and Amit Shah can do that will stop us,” Gandhi said.
Reports suggest he was transferred to another bus and taken to a police station on Barakhamba Road.
His sister and fellow Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was also detained. She waved a copy of the Constitution while being ushered into a bus. Along with other leaders, she was taken to the Chhatrasal Stadium.
Detained Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury said, “Let them do whatever they want. The voice of the nation is strong. We are working here in the service of the country. If this incompetent government does not understand this, our voice will reach their ears.”
Echoing similar sentiments, CPI (M) MP John Brittas said, “How long will they keep on detaining us? Where will they keep us? Even if they dump us in Tihar Jail, we will not budge an inch. We will continue with this protest.”
Among those detained was TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien.
Earlier, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, carrying a copy of the Constitution, lay down on the road at the roundabout near Delhi’s Shangri-La hotel with other women MPs. They had to be forcibly removed by police personnel.
How the day unfolded
A day after the INDIA bloc MPs’ march from Parliament and Rahul Gandhi’s sit-in at Akashvani Bhawan, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge hosted a lunch for the MPs of the alliance at a South Indian restaurant at Janpath, seen by many as a show of solidarity and a cover for launching another street protest.
The MPs converged at the all-vegetarian Sagar Ratna. Earlier, Rahul Gandhi was trolled online by a section of X users for having a non-vegetarian roll from ‘Khan Chacha’ eatery during his eight-hour sit-in at the Akashvani Bhawan.
The lunch began at 1.30 pm, and when the MPs streamed out of the eatery, they sat in three buses parked on Janpath Road and headed towards Jantar Mantar.
Some Congress leaders, including Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Imran Masood, Imran Pratapgarhi, Deepender Hooda and Srinivas B.V., climbed the roof of the bus in which Kharge, Rahul and Priyanka were travelling and waved the tricolour as the procession crawled from Janpath to Jantar Mantar, bringing the high security area to a halt for the second day.
Buses stopped at Ashoka Road
However, the buses were stopped by a multi-layered security cordon at Ashoka Road, after travelling a kilometre, near the Shangri-La hotel, barely another kilometre away from the Jantar Mantar protest site.
MPs of the Congress, TMC, CPI-M, CPI, RJD, IUML and some other parties were among the protesters.
The Samajwadi Party was unrepresented at an INDIA bloc lunch, with the Congress attributing the absence of some allies to short notice. However, SP sources separately voiced concerns over a lack of consultation ahead of Rahul Gandhi’s surprise protests.
Representatives of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP-SP also could not attend because of prior commitments.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said all parties of the INDIA bloc had been invited, but the decision and communication came late on Tuesday night.
“Therefore, it was natural that representatives from some parties could not participate in it. Some media outlets are making unnecessary comments about this,” he posted on X.
Ramesh asserted that INDIA bloc constituents and other Opposition parties remained united against “vote theft”, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and delimitation.
As the buses neared the multi-layered security personnel cordon, they were stopped, with the security personnel urging them not to proceed further, as BNS 163 was in force.
Soon there was a melee as leaders and the security personnel jostled amid loud sloganeering.
Later, the Congress said, “The bus in which Rahul Gandhi ji was being taken was punctured by Congress’s Babbar lions near Agrasen ki Baoli.”
Akhilesh hits out at Delhi Police
In Lucknow, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav hit out at the Delhi Police over an FIR filed against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in connection with the Opposition protest in the national capital, saying the police had no work other than registering cases.
Yadav had participated in the opposition protest in New Delhi on Tuesday along with several INDIA bloc leaders. Asked about the FIR registered against Gandhi over Tuesday’s protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Yadav said, “The police have no work except registering FIRs.”
In response to another question, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said the country cannot become a developed nation as long as the BJP remains in power.
“As long as the BJP remains, a developed India cannot be built. A developed India will be built when the BJP is removed.
“Only then will Hindustaniyat, humanity and brotherhood survive,” he said.
Yadav, leader of the third largest party in Lok Sabha, also posted on X, “Those who fight for the sake of the country do not fear arrest,” and claimed, “The BJP itself was the CEC,” demanding Kumar’s resignation.
(With PTI inputs)
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