Arrest me, release veteran's family, says Rahul after being detained twice
New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi was detained twice on Wednesday by Delhi police for trying to meet the family members of Army veteran Ram Kishan Grewal, who allegedly committed suicide over insufficient pension.
70-year-old Grewal, an ex-serviceman from Haryana's Bhiwani district, ended his life on Tuesday by allegedly consuming poison on the lawns behind a government building in Janpath, the central area of the capital.
After his release, Rahul said, “It was my duty to visit the family. Did I commit a mistake by visiting the soldier’s family? Was it my fault that I wanted to express my condolences? I wanted to meet them, is it wrong? This is not the way to operate, this is not how you run the country.”
“It was a tough day for the family and yet they have been detained. Cops said they had orders from the top to detain the family,” added Rahul.
Rahul said the veteran’s family was arrested for meeting him. “I wanted to speak to the bereaved family. When they came to meet me, they were beaten and dragged to the police station. Arrest me, but why detain the family,” said Gandhi.
“Minimum that government should do is to apologise to the family of the deceased ex-serviceman.”
Rahul was detained twice today. He was also not allowed to meet Grewal's family at the RML Hospital in the national capital. He was stopped by the security personnel deployed at the entrance gate. Gandhi was then briefly detained for 70-minutes in the afternoon. However, in the evening Rahul Gandhi was again detained as he attempted to meet Grewal’s family yet again and was released in an hour.
High drama unfolded on streets in Lutyens' Delhi with Congress and AAP workers staging protests. Gandhi along with other Congress leaders, including Jyotiraditya Scindia and Ajay Maken were bundled into a police van and taken to the police station.
Minutes after Gandhi’s detention, Kejriwal was also detained as he tried meeting Grewal’s family. Kejriwal tweeted that he has ‘been formally detained’ by Delhi Police.
Hours earlier, Kejriwal’s deputy Manish Sisodia and AAP MLA Surinder Singh were also detained at the RML Hospital after Sisodia met Grewal’s family.
Sisodia managed to enter the hospital premises and meet the family members of the deceased, before being detained by police. Eyewitnesses said Sisodia could enter the premises as he came in a civilian car, which went undetected by the security.
Earlier in the day, Kejriwal lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that he was lying on the 'One rank, One Pension' issue. "The Prime Minister says OROP has been implemented, and soldiers are dying demanding it to be implemented. It means the PM is lying across the country.”
"Then why did he commit suicide? The Centre is deceiving the army. I have come to meet his family. If anyone commits suicide in my state, should I not meet the family?”
"BJP is doing politics. They have detained the Deputy CM. We will have to postpone the Cabinet meeting. Why? Because the Centre has resorted to hooliganism," Kejriwal told reporters outside the hospital.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while celebrating the Diwali with the army and ITBP personnel in Kinnaur, had said that the first instalment of nearly Rs 5,500 crore has been paid for implementing the OROP scheme.
OROP scheme has been a long-standing demand of nearly three-million ex-servicemen and war widows in the country. It seeks to ensure that a uniform pension is paid to defence personnel, who retire at the same rank with the same length of service irrespective of their date of retirement.
