How Rahul planned INDIA bloc's impromptu Jantar Mantar protest, defied Delhi Police

Cocking a snook at the Delhi Police, yet again, Rahul Gandhi rallied leaders of INDIA bloc for an impromptu protest to Jantar Mantar, on Wednesday (October 7), to reiterate the Opposition’s demand for Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation as Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). The ensuing high drama ended, as it had a day earlier at the Akashvani Bhavan, with the Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition, Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi and scores of other Opposition leaders being forcibly detained by the Delhi Police.

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The protest was planned spontaneously when Rahul joined over 150 MPs of various INDIA bloc constituents for lunch at the Sagar Ratna restaurant located on Janpath. Sources said that though the lunch invitation was extended to the Opposition MPs by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge late Tuesday night, there was no prior discussion about embarking on a protest march straight from the restaurant towards Jantar Mantar.

A senior CPM leader present at the lunch told The Federal that many MPs arrived at Sagar Ratna expecting that the Congress leadership would clear the air about Rahul’s sudden move a day earlier to launch a sit-in protest at Akashvani Bhawan when a police crackdown stalled the Parliament to Nirvachan Sadan march of INDIA bloc MPs.

Samajwadi Party absent from lunch

Rahul’s Akashvani Bhavan dharna, which went on for nearly eight hours before the Delhi Police brutishly ejected him, Congress MPs Priyanka, KC Venugopal, Deepender Hooda, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra and others from the spot, had irked some INDIA bloc members who felt the Gandhi siblings deliberately drew away attention from a pre-decided united Opposition protest and turned the focus entirely on themselves.

Also read: Will India ever regain its much-acclaimed, fair electoral process?

On Wednesday, as Rahul and Priyanka arrived at the lunch with Kharge, the occasion did, at first, seem like an exercise to assuage any distrust the Gandhi siblings may have unwittingly triggered among allies with their Akashvani showdown. Leaders present at the luncheon said Kharge, Rahul, Priyanka and Venugopal ensured that their table had representation from each of the INDIA bloc parties in attendance.

Trinamool Congress’s Derek O’Brien, RJD’s Manoj Kumar Jha, CPM’s John Brittas, IUML’s ET Mohammad Basheer, JMM’s Vijay Hansdak, CPI’s Vijay Hansdak and VCK’s Thirumavalavan were among the Opposition leaders who were seated with the Congress president and the Gandhi siblings.

A notable absence was that of the Samajwadi Party (SP), which also allowed rumours of a rift between party chief Akhilesh Yadav and the Congress. Although sources did concede that the Akashvani episode had “upset” Akhilesh, who felt the Gandhi siblings undermined Opposition unity by what essentially turned into a “Rahul-Priyanka show”, a close aide of the SP chief told The Federal that the party’s absence from the lunch “wasn’t a conscious decision but the result of poor coordination by the Congress party”.

“Most of our MPs returned to their constituencies after they were released from detention following the (October 6) protest; Akhileshji had also gone back to Lucknow… our party had planned some rallies and events across various districts (of Uttar Pradesh) today and several MPs had confirmed their participation in these rallies so they could not have returned to Delhi just for a lunch meeting… if the Congress had shared the invite in time and informed us about the protest, our party president would have definitely authorised someone to represent the SP; as far as I am aware, no one was given advance information about today’s protest and a decision about it was taken suddenly during the lunch,” explained Neeraj Maurya, the party’s Aonla MP who was in Amethi on Tuesday to lead a ‘PDA panchayat’.

Rahul's suggestion to go to Jantar Mantar

Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh too clarified that “all parties of the INDIA Janbandhan were invited for today's lunch” but as the “decision for the lunch was taken late last night… it was natural that representatives from some parties could not participate in it.”

Also read: 'Gyanesh must go': Najeeb Jung's 3 suggestions to address EC SIR crisis

An Opposition leader who was seated with Rahul during the lunch said the latter “assured us that his intention was absolutely not to dilute the INDIA bloc’s protest or to bring the focus on himself… he went to the Akashvani Bhavan on an impulse and then other Congress leaders forced their way there too, but it was when the police started telling them to leave the premises that they decided to sit on a dharna.”

Another INDIA bloc MP said it was during the discussion over lunch that Rahul suggested that “since most of us are already here, let us go to Jantar Mantar and resume the protest… maybe he had already discussed this with Kharge and some others in his close network but none of the other parties were told about this in advance; when he said should we go to Jantar Mantar, everyone agreed.”

Arrangements were then made for buses to be brought to Janpath to ferry the MPs from Sagar Ratna to Jantar Mantar. While several MPs decided to drive down to the Jantar Mantar in their own vehicles, care was taken to ensure that a cross-section of INDIA bloc leaders and not just those from the Congress also travelled together in the buses. Instructions were also passed on to Devender Yadav, the Congress’s Delhi unit chief, Indian Youth Congress chief Uday Bhanu Chib and some other party office bearers to mobilise workers, especially the youth, to join the protest in anticipation of another crackdown by the cops.

Face-off with police

As the buses arrived at Janpath, so did a heavy deployment of the police. Around 3:30 PM, Kharge, Rahul, Manoj Jha, John Brittas, Derek O’Brien and a few other leaders addressed the media that had by now swarmed to Janpath. The leaders reiterated their allegations against Gyanesh Kumar, with Rahul accusing the CEC, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah of rigging the electoral system and disenfranchising crores of legitimate voters, while Congress media in-charge and Rajya Sabha MP Pawan Khera announced on X (Formerly Twitter) that the INDIA bloc was set to resume its protest at Jantar Mantar.

As was expected, the Delhi Police heavily barricaded different spots along the route from Janpath to Jantar Mantar in a failed attempt to stop the Opposition MPs from reaching the protest hotspot. It took over an hour for the bus ferrying Kharge, Rahul, Priyanka and their INDIA bloc comrades to reach the site – a distance of just about a kilometre from Janpath.

Their arrival instantly triggered a face-off with the massive police force deployed all around Jantar Mantar. Several Opposition MPs suffered injuries and bruises as cops began to violently evict them. In her characteristic defiance, Priyanka lay down on the road while Congress MPs and workers made a circle around the Gandhi siblings to prevent the cops from carrying them away.

The altercation went on for over an hour before the Gandhi siblings were literally dragged away by the cops for a second consecutive day. Undeterred, Rahul dubbed the repeated police crackdown against protesting Opposition leaders and civil society groups a “panic reaction” of Modi’s government.

“We are not going to stop protesting till Gyanesh Kumar resigns; there is nothing Modi and Shah can do that will stop us because this is a fight to protect the most sacred thing in our country… they have attacked the Constitution and the voice of the people; mark my words, they will be brought to justice and we are going to make them pay for what they have done,” the Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition said in a video statement while being taken by the police to the Barakhamba Road, where he was briefly detained before being released around 8 PM.

Protest likely to continue on Thursday

Opposition sources said the possibility of another flash protest on Thursday could not be ruled out. With student and youth organisations affiliated to the Left parties and Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP as well as Abhijit Dipke’s Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) planning a massive protest at Jantar Mantar on October 10 to press for the CEC’s resignation, the dominant view within the INDIA bloc is that the “Opposition must not allow any impression to gain ground that we became complacent on the issue after one or two protests,” said a Trinamool Congress MP.

A section within the Congress also believes that the CJP and AAP are “working in tandem” to “divert attention from the political mobilisation” that the INDIA bloc and particularly the Congress, under Rahul, have managed against Gyanesh Kumar and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls.

“The AAP refused to participate in our scheduled protest on October 6 even though the INDIA bloc appealed to all Opposition parties to unite in this fight, but from what we know, Arvind Kejriwal has directed all his supporters to be at the protest jointly called by Left student outfits and the CJP. Statements by the CJP are also shrewdly worded to show as if the political Opposition is not doing anything and that it is only the CJP leadership fighting on every issue,” said a senior Congress leader.

The Congress leader added, “We can’t let this false narrative to gain ground; if there is anyone who is worst affected by a compromised CEC and SIR process, it is the Opposition parties and so this fight has to be spearheaded by us and not some group whose ideological convictions and antecedents are all ambiguous… the INDIA bloc, the Congress party have to be seen leading this fight, taking things easy is simply not an option and Rahul Gandhi realises this more than anyone else.”