The historic Akashvani Bhavan campus, home to All India Radio, became the new site for political protests as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi held a dharna for over six hours as a part of the Opposition’s protest against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Tuesday.
Later, they were detained by a large number of Delhi police personnel from the campus. When the police started detaining the Opposition leaders, Gandhi and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra slipped through an iron gate—the only one kept open for the Akashvani staff, and sat under a large banyan tree. Congress general secretary KC Venugopal, party MP Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and party leaders Manish Chatrath, BV Srinivas and others also joined the protest. To be sure, it is unlikely that the campus can be again used for such political protests.
The original plan was to march from the Parliament house to Nirvachan Sadan, the Election Commission headquarters but as the police stopped the march next to the Akashvani Bhavan, Gandhi, along with other key Congress leaders, switched over to the plan to prolong their demonstrations, according to some leaders. Senior Congress leaders said that while the Sansad Marg has seen many protests and marches, Gandhi’s decision to shift to Akashvani Bhavan campus, inadvertently turned it into a temporary political platform. A senior official said that Gandhi “took advantage of the gate that was left open.”
