Rahul Gandhi and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge sat on a dharna outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi's residence on Tuesday and demanded his resignation over the police action against students protesting on the NEET paper leak issue.
NEW DELHI — Congress leaders led by Rahul Gandhi and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge sat on a dharna outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi's residence on Tuesday and demanded his resignation over the police action against students protesting on the NEET paper leak issue.
After nearly 20 minutes, Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Jitendra Singh met Gandhi at the protest site on Lok Kalyan Marg and urged him to end his sit-in. The unprecedented scenes unfolded soon after Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met the injured students at a hospital here.
Gandhi, along with Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, chief minister of Karnataka D K Shivakumar and Kerala CM V D Satheesan, besides several Congress MPs, raised slogans against the prime minister.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh, who was accompanied by Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, left after speaking with Gandhi for a few minutes. Congress leaders said that the talks were inconclusive and they will remain there overnight.
The MPs and other Congress leaders symbolically tied their hands while protesting against alleged restrictions on the people's freedom imposed by the government.
Gandhi said an attack on students is an attack on every Indian family.
"PM Modi believes he can get away without answers, without consequences. He cannot. Not this time.
"I ask every patriotic Indian who believes our students deserve justice - join us in dharna in front of the Prime Minister’s residence. The voice of India’s students will not be ignored," the Congress leader said.
Congress MP Pawan Khera said the party leaders intend to sit on the dharna overnight till the government provides justice to the students and agrees to their demands.
"We will not leave this protest site till the government provides justice to the students. We want justice and we will not budge," Khera told PTI.
Some of the MPs also accused the police of using force against them in their bid to remove them from the protest site.
Former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, Congress chief whip in Lok Sabha K Suresh and Congress MP Sukhjinder Randhawa were whisked away by the police. Kharge also left the site after a couple of hours.
Channi said that the government does not listen to the students. "This is goondagardi, sheer hooliganism. This is nothing short of high-handedness," he alleged, as he was being taken away from the protest site by the police.
"If this is the condition of MPs, imagine what is happening to the students..." Randhawa told reporters.
K Suresh said the police have "brutally detained us".
The Congress leaders earlier marched to the prime minister's residence against what they alleged were "police brutalities" on the young students during the CJP-led protest march to Parliament on Monday.
Gandhi said they have marched to PM Modi’s house to demand answers from him for the brutalities against young students yesterday. "The Government doesn’t want to take any accountability, nor does it want to have a debate on it in Parliament," he said in a post on X.
"The Prime Minister and Home Minister must resign for destroying the future of India's youth," the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said, adding the Congress Party stands with the students' rights and their legitimate demands.
Kharge said the Congress leaders were sitting on a dharna outside the Prime Minister's residence. "This cowardly authoritarian government will have to answer for the lathi charge and use of force.
"Modi-Shah are guilty against our youth; they will have to resign," he said in a post on X.
Gandhi, along with his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other Congress leaders, earlier met some of the students injured in Monday's police action at the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.
"This arrogant and dictatorial government will have to answer for the brutal lathi charge on students. This arrogant government is guilty of the crime against the youth; they will have to resign," said Randeep Surjewala in a post on X.
Thousands of people participated in a march to Parliament on Monday called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on the first day of the Monsoon session to push for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET fiasco, but were prevented by police.