NEW DELHI: Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were forcibly removed and detained by the Delhi Police on Wednesday after they, along with other INDIA bloc leaders, staged a sit-in at a roundabout near the Shangri-La Hotel while on their way to Jantar Mantar.
Rahul, along with other leaders, was taken to the Barakhamba police station. Later, they were released. Priyanka Gandhi, who was taken to Chhatrasal stadium, was also released later.
The leaders had been stopped by the police from proceeding towards the designated protest site after Opposition MPs boarded buses from Janpath, where they had gathered for a lunch hosted by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
“We are not going to stop protesting till 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,” said Rahul Gandhi after the detention.
Priyanka Gandhi said there is no other way left now except to remove this government. “I want to tell every citizen of the country that remove this government. If you do not remove this government, the country will go into the abyss. This is the world’s largest democracy, democracy means rule of the people. It has some principles, which are in the Constitution. This government should work for the Constitution, but it is breaking all principles,” she said.
“Since yesterday, more than 300 MPs have been saying that we want to meet the Election Commissioners. We want to tell them about ‘vote theft’ and demand their resignation, because we do not trust them. The Election Commission runs for the people of the country and we are the representatives of the people. We want to go peacefully and talk to them, but the government is so cowardly that it fears the voice of the people. Therefore, it is stopping protests everywhere,” she added.
The action came a day after a high-voltage standoff with the Delhi Police that ended with the detention of Rahul Gandhi and other Opposition leaders and an FIR against several protesters, as the INDIA bloc stepped up its campaign over alleged “vote chori” and sought the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The MPs later boarded buses for Jantar Mantar, located a little over a kilometre from the restaurant, as the Opposition sought to keep its campaign against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar alive.
Some MPs climbed onto the roofs of the buses carrying the tricolour as the procession crawled towards Jantar Mantar, bringing the high-security area to a halt for the second day. Security personnel barricaded the stretch outside the Shangri-La Hotel on the Ashoka Road-Jantar Mantar route. The buses were stopped by a multi-layered security cordon, barely a kilometre from the protest site.
Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Mallikarjun Kharge got off the bus after the barricades halted their movement. The leaders were stopped by the police from marching towards Jantar Mantar. They staged a sit-in at the roundabout itself, with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra lying on the road along with other women leaders while carrying a copy of the Constitution.
Security personnel gathered in large numbers at the site and first forcibly removed Rahul Gandhi, putting him inside a police bus after carrying him on their shoulders. Congress workers punctured the bus carrying Rahul Gandhi on KG Marg.
A large posse of women police personnel then started removing Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other women who were lying on the road. They were forcibly removed and put into buses and taken away from the site. Several other Opposition MPs were also detained by the police. MPs of the Congress, TMC, CPI-M, CPI, RJD, IUML and some other parties were among the protesters, while Samajwadi Party MPs were not present.
The move came after Tuesday’s dramatic events, when Opposition MPs marched from Parliament towards the Election Commission headquarters but were stopped by security personnel. The standoff later shifted to Akashvani Bhawan, where Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka and several other leaders sat in a prolonged dharna before being detained.
