India's opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was forcibly carried by police into a bus and detained on Wednesday — the third time in two days — as the INDIA bloc's protest demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar escalated into running street confrontations in central New Delhi.
Dragged into a police bus
After a solidarity lunch hosted by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, opposition MPs boarded buses for Jantar Mantar — only to be stopped by police at the roundabout near the Shangri-La hotel. Rahul Gandhi was forcibly carried by police officers and put into a police bus, released after more than two hours. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and women MPs lay down on the road and were forcibly removed by women police; Priyanka said officers "scratched me all over and thrown us to the ground."
MPs allege police beat them, and police lathi-charged Youth Congress workers. The road to Jantar Mantar was shut, with heavy police and paramilitary forces in riot gear deployed across central Delhi. Police have also registered an FIR against Rahul and Priyanka over Tuesday's protest at Akashvani Bhawan.
What the protest is about: "vote theft"
The INDIA bloc accuses the Election Commission of "vote theft" through the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls — Al Jazeera reports more than 130 million names were removed from voter lists, with millions appealing. The opposition says the removals disproportionately hit its voters; the Commission and the BJP deny wrongdoing, saying the revision removes duplicates. The row was sparked by Indian Express reporting on disagreements within the poll panel itself over updating the voter lists.
Gandhi pulled no punches: "The people who have done this (vote theft) are traitors... Gyanesh Kumar will have to resign." He added: "They can do all this stuff, but we are going to bring them to justice... This is all a panic reaction. This is all fear." Posters on the protest buses read "no vote theft, no democracy theft" and "election commission, not BJP commission."
The other side — and what's next
The Election Commission and the BJP reject the allegations, and police have not commented on the detentions. RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha called the crackdown "the height of brutality," blaming Kumar, Amit Shah, and Prime Minister Modi.
Congress has extended the campaign: a "Save Vote, Save Country" program runs October 10–20, a major rally at Ramlila Maidan is set for November 1, and six "Chalo Delhi" marches converge on the capital November 25–26 for Constitution Day.
The takeaway: with 969 million Indians eligible to vote, a fight over who gets to stay on the rolls has become a fight over the legitimacy of the referee — and the opposition shows no sign of backing down.
Sources: Al Jazeera · Reuters via Geo TV · The Week
Watch: ANI video of Rahul Gandhi being detained and carried into a police bus near Jantar Mantar
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Hitman (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0