Rahul Gandhi, Sister Priyanka Among Congress Leaders Released After 6-Hour Detention

1. Congress leaders, including 65 MPs, were released from police detention at Kingsway Camp in Delhi around 7pm. The Gandhi siblings were among the leaders taken away in buses from the high-profile Lutyens' Delhi around noon.

2. Videos of Priyanka Gandhi being dragged into a police van went viral on social media, with Opposition parties condemning the action. The Congress also put out a video of Rahul Gandhi and other leaders being taken away in a bus, with a patriotic song in the background to amplify its message.

3. The protest was planned and announced several days in advance. Police had denied permission for it, and the local administration even banned assembly of people. Citing these restrictions, the leaders were detained.

4. Earlier in the day, led by party chief Sonia Gandhi, Congress MPs wore black clothes in Parliament. Proceedings were adjourned as Congress members created an uproar over the alleged misuse of probe agencies by the government.

5. As part of the protest thereafter, party leaders planned to take part in "PM House gherao". But the police barricaded several parts of central Delhi to scuttle the plan. Some party MPs were also to hold a "Chalo Rashtrapati Bhavan" march.  

Advertisement

6. Ahead of the protest, Rahul Gandhi said, "We're witnessing the death of democracy. What India has built brick by brick, starting almost a century ago, is being destroyed in front of your eyes. Anybody who stands against this idea of onset of dictatorship is viciously attacked, jailed, arrested and beaten up."

7. The BJP hit back, asking if there is "democracy" in the Congress, a "dynastic" party. The government has been insisting that inflation isn't particularly bad. 

8. Government data shared last month, however, says India's annual retail inflation climbed to 7.01% in June, from 6.26% a year earlier. This was above the central bank's tolerance band of 2-6% for the sixth month in a row.

9. Congress and other parties have been continuously raising questions against the price rise, including a recent hike and widening of the ambit of Goods and Service Tax (GST). Opposition MPs have been staging protests both inside and outside Parliament during the ongoing Monsoon Session.

10. In a statement this evening after the protesters' release, Delhi Police said a total 335 people, including MPs, had been detained to "maintain law and order".

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a press release)