Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was briefly detained by Indian police on Tuesday during protest calling for the resignation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Gandhi had joined the protest in solidarity with the new youth-led Cockroach Party movement, which originally sought the resignation of Indian Education Minister.
Gandhi, the leader of India’s Congress Party, staged a sit-in outside Modi’s house on Tuesday afternoon, stating that Modi must resign for destroying the future of India’s youth. His protest took place as thousands of students were gathered at a separate site in central
Delhi, the day after a huge protest calling for the resignation of Modi’s Education Minister was met with force by Delhi police, including baton attacks and tear gas that left several students protesting students injured.
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Rahul Gandhi had announced that his party was taking the protest directly to the residence of the Prime Minister after the Modi government refused to take up the issues of the students and alleged. Footage showed police beating Gandhi and forcibly removing him from the protest site into the policeman.
He was being lifted by both arms and legs by the police as they pushed through the large crowds and into a nearby bus and removed from the area. Chaotic scenes triggered as protests appeared to try to board the bus as it sped away. Rahul Gandhi shared the images of the police brutality against him on social media and said the demonstrations will not stop. His sister Priyanka Gandhi, a senior party strategist, was also briefly detained on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, more than 50,000 people took to the streets in protest, many of them in their late teens and early 20s. On Monday, police fired tear gas at protesters and charged batons in the capital’s largest demonstration in five years.
