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Police in India's capital New Delhi briefly detained prominent opposition leader Rahul Gandhi to end the standoff that lasted nearly nine hours.
Rahul was involved in the protest demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The protest was being held against the controversial SIR (Special Intensive Revision) of voter lists.
Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were forcibly taken by the police to a bus from the All India Radio campus. Earlier on Tuesday, hundreds of policemen had stopped them from marching towards the Election Commission headquarters. Both were released in the evening.
Opposition leaders are demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar from the post and cancellation of the controversial changes made in the voter list. In this process, more than 13 crore names have been removed from the voter list.
Opposition groups allege that this process has given unfair advantage to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party. The Election Commission and Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party have denied these allegations.
Rahul Gandhi was also seen arguing with a police officer during the protest. A police officer told Rahul that he should leave from here.
On this, Rahul Gandhi said, "Is there no right to peaceful protest in a democracy? Can't the opposition MPs meet the Chief Election Commissioner? In response to this, the police officer said that you should have taken an appointment in the Election Commission. In response, Rahul said - I asked for an appointment several times but did not get it? Tell me any such place in Delhi, I am going there to protest."
Senior Supreme Court lawyer and human rights activist Vrinda Grover is raising questions on the role of Delhi Police.
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He wrote in a post on X, "People of India cannot go to Jantar Mantar for peaceful protest. Opposition leaders cannot go to the Election Commission of India. The world is watching Modi-Shah's idea of the mother of democracy! We, the people of India, will regain our democracy.
RK Singh, who was a minister in the Modi government and former Home Secretary, has also raised questions on the role of Delhi Police.
RK Singh has written, "Citizens of India have the fundamental right to assemble peacefully and without arms under Article 19 of the Constitution. In such a situation, how can the Delhi Police Commissioner stop the demonstration at Jantar Mantar?
"Under the police manual, the police have the right to control meetings and processions, but this cannot mean that there should be a complete ban on gathering of people or demonstrations. Doing so would be a violation of the Constitution. The Police Commissioner cannot even argue that the demonstration at Jantar Mantar will cause inconvenience to the people, because demonstrations have been taking place there regularly in the past also. The Police Commissioner should work as per the Constitution and laws, and not as per the alleged illegal instructions of any politician.
Not only the opposition is raising questions on the working style of the Election Commission but the people at the top of this institution are also raising questions.
Former Election Commission Commissioner Ashok Lavasa believes that the EC has got itself into a very difficult situation and regrettably it has played a role in getting there.
Ashok Lavasa had written in the leading English newspaper Indian Express on October 6, "This institution, which has won the trust of people over the years due to its easy-going and friendly attitude, has today become almost completely alone."
“Whenever its only friend, the ruling party, comes to its defence, it pushes the Commission into an even more difficult situation. The war going on within ECI has now become public. "The 14 objections written by the two Election Commissioners have put the Chief Election Commissioner at the center of controversy, even though this storm may affect his own position as well."
Election Commission's answer
The Election Commission's reply also came in this matter late in the evening. The Election Commission said it had offered to send its most senior officer on duty to the proposed meeting venue to collect memorandum from the protesting MPs. According to the Commission, this would have been an unprecedented step in itself. However, the protesting leaders rejected this proposal also.
In an official statement issued after Rahul Gandhi was detained from the protest site inside Akashvani Bhawan, the headquarters of All India Radio in the capital, the Election Commission said that till 4 pm it had received information through the media that some MPs wanted to meet the Commission with their delegation during the march towards the headquarters.
The Commission said, "Till 4 pm today, no political party through its representatives had sought time to meet the Election Commission."
However, at around 4 o'clock, information was received from Delhi Police that a delegation of MPs led by Rahul Gandhi wanted to meet the Commission and submit a memorandum.
After this, when the Election Commission was considering this request, the Deputy Commissioner of Police of Delhi Police told that the delegation includes 240 MPs and the proposed meeting venue is Parliament House Annexe.
"The Election Commission considered this request unusual and hence could not be accepted, as as per the protocol of the ECI, such meetings are held only in the premises of the Election Commission of India," the commission said in its statement.
The Election Commission said that instead it had offered to take the memorandum by sending the most senior officer on duty, but opposition MPs rejected this proposal.
The Commission further said that in 2025 it had set a process for meeting with political parties and all political parties were informed about it.
The Commission said, "Under this procedure, when a delegation of a political party or a joint delegation of several parties wants to meet the Election Commission, it has to seek time for the meeting through its authorized representative. After this, the time of the meeting is decided with mutual consent of both the parties.
India alliance strategy
Under the leadership of the Congress party, about 300 MPs on Tuesday marched a distance of 800 meters from Parliament to the Election Commission headquarters in Central New Delhi.
Rahul Gandhi had a placard in his hand on which it was written, "Gyanesh, it's done bro." Earlier, Gandhi had accused the Chief Election Commissioner of "misusing his position to help the BJP".
Gandhi said, "Everyone involved in this criminal attack on democracy will be held accountable."
Last week, The Hindu Group chief N Ram told BBC Hindi that in the last 13 years of the Modi government, there was never such a good time for the opposition because people's dissatisfaction was visible publicly.
This process of changing the voter list is known as Special Intensive Revision. It started last year from Bihar, where BJP won comfortably. After this it was implemented in the entire country. It is estimated that about 13 crore names, i.e. about 13 percent of the total voters, have been removed from the voter list.
The Election Commission has defended the process, saying that the names removed were those of duplicates, dead people or immigrants. However, critics allege that the Commission wrongly removed the names of crores of voters, especially Muslim voters, under pressure from the Modi government.
In the last one year, BJP has won in many states, including opposition-held West Bengal. Now BJP and its allies have control over such states, where more than 70 percent of the country's population lives. This situation is considered to be close to the dominance of the Congress led by Indira Gandhi in the 1970s.
BJP is also trying to maintain its control in Uttar Pradesh in February. Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state of India and has a large Muslim population.
The anger against the Election Commission has increased further after a report published in the Indian Express last month. The report alleged irregularities in the SIR process and dozens of internal objections raised by two other Election Commission commissioners.
The Election Commission said that such differences are part of the normal deliberations in the decision-making process and its final decisions were unanimous. On Friday, the Commission directed the officials to add back the names of eligible voters whose names were erroneously left out of the list.
Former Chief Election Commissioner SY Qureshi termed these explanations as complete nonsense. He has accused Gyanesh Kumar of playing with the country.
The Supreme Court of India this week sought clarification from the Election Commission and the government regarding the removal of names from the voter list.
Gyanesh Kumar is going to step down from his post in 2029. He has not responded to demands for his resignation and has defended the independence of the Election Commission. Last month, US President Donald Trump also praised Gyanesh Kumar when he insisted on proving his identity to Indian voters.
BJP MP and party national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi on Tuesday challenged the opposition and asked, "Who will benefit by giving voting rights to absentee, transferred, dead and duplicate voters without any investigation?"
Rahul's strategy
BJP got only 240 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, due to which Narendra Modi had to depend on allies like Telugu Desam Party and Janata Dal (United) to form the government. Congress won 99 seats, allowing Rahul Gandhi to formally assume the role of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the opposition in Parliament seems more vocal than before.
However, after the 2024 general elections, Congress and its allies faced consecutive electoral defeats at the hands of BJP in states like Haryana, Maharashtra and Bihar. Refusing to accept these defeats as the result of fair electoral contests, Rahul Gandhi repeatedly accused BJP of electoral manipulation and vote theft. He alleged that the Election Commission of India is working under political pressure.
Now the main question is what strategy will Rahul Gandhi adopt to create a credible and impactful political narrative around these issues among the voters. Rahul is now raising the issue of SIR on the streets outside the Parliament.
