Rahul, Oppn MPs Detained During Protest March to EC
Delhi Police were seen stopping the MPs, who were raising slogans of "vote chor" as they marched towards the office of the poll body at Nirvachan Sadan.
New Delhi: In a bold show of Opposition unity, hundreds of Opposition members of Parliament were detained by the Delhi police on Monday while marching towards the Election Commission’s office demanding fair electoral rolls and a rollback of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar, which they allege is part of a larger plan to manipulate elections.
The protesting MPs who were detained included Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, his sister and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and TMC MP Derek O’Brien, among others.
Holding placards and copies of the Indian Constitution, the legislators led by Mr Gandhi marched from Parliament House towards the EC office in Ashoka Road. As the police blocked their path on Parliament Street, many MPs sat down on the road and chanted slogans including “Tanashahi Nahi Chalegi” (Dictatorship will not work), “Jag gaya hai Hindustan” (India has awakened) and “Jab Jab Modi Darta Hai, Police Ko Aage Karta Hai” (Whenever Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets scared, he pushes the police forward).
The protest turned especially charged as several MPs, including Akhilesh Yadav, TMC's Mahua Moitra and Congress leaders Sanjana Jatav and Jothimani, climbed the barricades, shouting slogans against the Election Commission, accusing it of acting under pressure from the ruling party. During the protest, Ms Moita and her party colleague Mithali Bag fainted.
They were later whisked away by the police in buses lined up along the road and taken to the Parliament Street police station, from where they were released nearly after two hours.
Mr Kharge, who was detained from outside Transport Bhavan, said the protest against “vote chori” and SIR was a fight to protect the people’s right to vote and a struggle to save democracy, and said the INDIA bloc will expose the BJP’s conspiracy.
“This is a fight to protect the people’s right to vote. This is a struggle to save democracy. The allies of the INDIA bloc will surely expose this BJP conspiracy to shred the Constitution,” Mr Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said in his social media post.
While he was being detained, Mr Gandhi said: “This fight is not political, but it is aimed at saving the Constitution. This fight is for ‘one man, one vote’ and we want a clean, pure voters’ list.”
After his release, Mr Gandhi told reporters that “we are fighting to protect the Constitution, not for political gain. The truth is in front of the entire country”.
Tearing into the EC, Mr Gandhi wondered why he was being asked to submit an affidavit under oath when it was the EC’s own data, and attacked the EC for refusing to meet Opposition MPs.
“Another thing I want to tell you is that this has not just happened in Bengaluru, but in different constituencies across the country, and the Election Commission knows this. The EC knows that this data will explode. What it is trying to control and hide, we will bring it out, and it will explode. The EC knows this well,” he told reporters.
Referring to the nationwide concern over the electoral malpractices after his expose, Mr Gandhi asserted: “Now this is not a political fight, this is a fight to save the soul of the country. It is a fight to save the Constitution”. He pointed out, according to the Constitution, one person has the right to one vote. “We have clearly shown that now there is no concept of ‘one person-one vote’, but one person with many votes and many persons with many votes”.
Earlier, the Congress had sought time for the Opposition parties from the Election Commission. The EC, in a letter to the Congress, had scheduled 12 noon on Monday as the meeting time and had permitted only 30 Opposition leaders to enter.
However, since the Opposition party leaders were not allowed to march to the EC office, the meeting could not take place.
The Delhi police justified the detentions by citing security concerns and lack of proper permissions. “Only 30 MPs were allowed to go to the Election Commission. The protesters were far more in number, and no permission was sought for the march,” a senior police officer said.
Security was beefed up near the EC office, with barricades, quick reaction teams, and crowd control units deployed across key points.