‘India is police state, Modi is king’: Opposition leader slams PM before being detained

Rahul Gandhi protests outside India’s parliament as his mother, the opposition Congress party’s chief is questioned by federal agency

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was detained along with several other lawmakers in country’s capital as they staged a protest against the prime minister Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government.

The politicians were protesting in front of India’s parliament in Delhi against rising prices and the alleged targeting of opposition leaders by federal probe agencies for political vendetta.

The demonstration came as the opposition party’s interim president and Mr Gandhi’s mother, Sonia Gandhi, was called in for questioning by the federal anti-money laundering agency, Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Ms Gandhi and her son are being probed over accusations of misusing party funds to acquire valuable real estate through a complex financial deal involving daily newspaper,the National Herald. The Gandhis have denied the allegations.

The complaint against the 75-year-old leader and her son was lodged nine years ago by Subramanian Swamy, a lawmaker from Mr Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party. In the complaint, he accused the Gandhis of forming a shell company and illegally gaining control of property worth about $300m.

The assets had belonged to the National Herald newspaper, founded in 1937 by India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who was Mr Gandhi’s great grandfather.

This is the second time Ms Gandhi has been called in for questioning. Earlier, last Thursday she was questioned for two hours in connection with the case.

Her son, Mr Gandhi, had also been questioned by the agency in June for over 50 hours, in sessions that were spread across five days.

Before being detained, Mr Gandhi sat on the road with other party members while being surrounded by scores of policemen. After an hour-long standoff, he was detained.

“I am not courting arrest, I am protesting against price rise, unemployment, for the voice of the people...” he told NDTV.  “India is a police state, [Narendra] Modi is a king,” he said, while being led away by the police.

Many other opposition party politicians including Digvijaya Singh and Deepender Hooda were also detained.

The party also held a countrywide protest against the summons issued to Ms Gandhi.

Accusing Mr Modi and home minister Amit Shah of misusing the police to quell dissent, the Congress’s leader of opposition in the parliament’s upper house, Mallikarjun Kharge, said: “We’re protesting as per the instruction of the police.

“All of this is a conspiracy by PM Modi and Amit Shah to completely destroy the opposition and muzzle our voices. We won’t be scared, our fight will continue.”

Meanwhile, BJP’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra hit out at the Congress saying they thought were entitled to indulge in “dacoity” and should not be questioned.

Slamming the countrywide protest against Ms Gandhi’s questioning, he said: “I feel many times that for the Congress, the meaning of ED was ‘entitlement for dacoity’.”

“They thought they were entitled to indulge in dacoity and no one should question them.”