Congress General Secretary and MP KC Venugopal on Monday strongly criticised the Centre and Delhi Police for detaining INDIA bloc parliamentarians during a protest march to the Election Commission (EC) over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar and alleged “voter fraud.”
Condemning the police action, Venugopal questioned the state of democracy in the country, claiming that elected representatives are being denied the basic right to approach the EC.
“The police and government are not allowing us to march for even 30 seconds. They want to stop us here. What democracy is there in the country? MPs don’t have the freedom to go to the Election Commission,” Venugopal told reporters.
He further alleged that the EC had restricted the number of entrants to its office to 30, urging authorities to at least permit those individuals to proceed.
NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule stressed the peaceful nature of the protest, saying, “We are protesting peacefully. We consider Mahatma Gandhi as our ideal.”
Earlier in the day, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi, and several other INDIA bloc MPs were detained by Delhi Police during the march. Among those held were Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, TMC MP Sagarika Ghose, and others, who were transported to the Parliament Street police station.
Rahul Gandhi reiterated that the Opposition’s movement transcends politics, declaring, “This fight is not political. This fight is to save the Constitution… for One Man, One Vote. We want a clean, pure voters list.”
