Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 7: As the opposition protest demanding removal of the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar intensified, key INDIA bloc leaders including the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and his sister as the Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were detained by the police after they led a massive demonstration for the second consecutive day on Wednesday.
The Congress sources have claimed that other opposition leaders who were at the site were not spared either. The police were seen pushing them into waiting buses and driving off. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi were detained after the continued to stage sit down protest in the area, declining police requests to leave.
Meanwhile, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and several student organisations on Wednesday also called for a united mobilisation against Mr Kumar ahead of their October 10 protest, saying the agitation would continue until the electoral system was overhauled.
The Gandhis were taken into custody on Tuesday also when they staged an impromptu sit-in demonstration at the Akashvani Bhavan as they were not allowed to go to the Election Commission headquarters.
On Wednesday, they were detained because they tried to hold a protest at the designated site, Jantar Mantar. The police contended that they did not seek prior approval. The MPs had headed for Jantar Mantar after a strategy lunch at a central Delhi restaurant. But they were stopped by the police. Initially the leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, were taken and made to sit in a bus. But as the police went to round up the others, the INDIA Bloc leaders got off and returned and sat down on the road declining police requests to move. Priyanka Gandhi lay down, daring anyone to move her. The siblings were finally dragged away by the police and shoved into the bus.
The Opposition leaders had assembled at Sagar Ratna restaurant on Delhi’s Janpath on the invitation of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge to give shape to their next steps as part of efforts to up the ante over the “vote chori” issue and push for the demand for Mr Kumar’s resignation. Alleging that democracy is being destroyed, Kharge said that the Opposition will take the issue of “vote chori” to the people.
Buses were parked outside the Sagar Ratna restaurant at Janpath and the MPs boarded them after the lunch and headed towards Jantar Mantar. The police had barricaded all routes towards Jantar Mantar. The buses carrying the Opposition MPs were stopped by the police on way.
Delhi Police has said prior permission was needed for holding any protest at Jantar Mantar. Applications seeking such permission are required to be submitted to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, New Delhi District, at least 10 days prior to the proposed event. But Rahul Gandhi said the Opposition MPs would protest at Jantar Mantar.
“As I said yesterday, approximately 300 MPs wanted to meet the Chief Election Commissioner, but they told that we could not hold a protest there. So, today, our plan is to go to the designated protest site, Jantar Mantar, and sit there together once again, and tell the country that, for us, Gyanesh Kumar is not the legitimate Election Commissioner of the country. Modi Ji, Amit Shah Ji, Mohan Bhagwat, and Gyanesh Kumar have destroyed the democracy of the country,” Rahul Gandhi said after the lunch.
Making light of the FIR against him over the dharna on Tuesday, Gandhi said he wanted 100 IRs filed against him. “There are 45 FIRs against me. My goal is 100,” he said. Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi were booked on Wednesday for entering Akashvani Bhavan without permission and staging a six-hour-long sit-in protest on the premises on Tuesday.
The situation escalated when Priyanka Gandhi refused to leave the spot. She lay down on the road as a mark of protest and told reporters, “I will not move away from here. I will not move from here. This is how they treat Members of Parliament who are asking simply to meet the Election Commissioner. This is how they treat us. They are beating MPs. The Policemen have scratched me all over. They have thrown us to the ground. Now, we are not going to move from here. Let them crawl their forces back,” the Wayanad MP said. The incident came amid heightened security arrangements in central Delhi as Opposition parties sought to take their campaign against the Election Commission to another stage.
The lunch meeting came a day after Rahul Gandhi took centre stage at the Opposition’s street protest, forcing a total lockdown of Parliament Street as he led an over eight-hour sit-in that ended with his forcible detention after Opposition MPs were stopped from marching towards the Election Commission’s office nearby.
Mr Gandhi and others were released after 10 pm after about two hours in detention. While most Opposition MPs were detained and prevented from moving forward, Rahul Gandhi along with other Congress MPs, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, entered the Akashvani Bhavan premises, barely 200 metres from the EC office, insisting that they be allowed to meet the Election Commissioners. Their sit-in, which began around noon, ended after 8 pm, when a large number of police personnel forcibly removed Gandhi from the premises and pushed him and others into police vans and buses, as the MPs resisted.
Reacting to the FIRs against Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, Congress MPs said that they were not scared. “We don’t care about the FIRs against Gandhi. There are hundreds lodged everywhere in the country,” said Congress Organisation Secretary K C Venugopal, who was at the dharna with the Gandhis.
Congress MPs Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Deepender Singh Hooda, Imran Pratapgarhi and Imran Masood climb atop the bus that was trying to head towards Jantar Mantar. “We are all here together, we are all here united, and we are all here without any egos. We will fight these guys, till they are out,” says TMC MP Derek O’Brien after Opposition MPs’ meeting called by Congress president and LoP Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.
Earlier in the day, buses carrying Opposition MPs to Jantar Mantar for a protest against Gyanesh Kumar were stopped by security personnel at Ashoka Road, barely a kilometre away from the protest site.
Rahul Gandhi and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra got off the bus after security personnel stopped buses carrying Opposition MPs. Rahul Gandhi was later seen moving towards Jantar Mantar, flanked by a large crowd of INDIA bloc MPs, as he attempted to clear the route to the designated protest site.
Rahul Gandhi had earlier announced that the Opposition would hold its protest at Jantar Mantar after its previous demonstration faced restrictions. “Yesterday, they said we cannot protest there, so we are taking the protest to Jantar Mantar… Gyanesh Kumar will have to resign. I want 100 FIRs on me; every FIR is a medal,” Gandhi told reporters.
He also stressed the unity of the Opposition, saying, “We are all here together; we are all here united, and we are all here without any egos. We will fight these guys till they are out.” The Congress and its allies have intensified their campaign against CEC Gyanesh Kumar, accusing the Election Commission of allowing irregularities in the electoral process. The Opposition has been repeatedly raising the allegation of “vote chori” and demanding accountability from the poll panel.