'Arrest us all': Rahul Gandhi dares PM Modi as Opposition cries 'dictatorship' over Delhi crackdown

Opposition leaders accused the Modi government of suppressing dissent and undermining democracy after Delhi Police detained thousands of protesters on Saturday as they tried to reach Jantar Mantar for a Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) demonstration against chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. According to the latest reports, more than 3,000 protesters had been detained across the capital.

Amid the security clampdown, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the government of cowardice and said he had spent more than a decade fighting Narendra Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

"The core characteristic of these people is cowardice," Rahul said in a video shared on X, naming Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, Gyanesh Kumar and national security adviser Ajit Doval as the "villains of this story".

"The villains of this story are slowly finding the space closing around them. We are closing that space," he said.

"We are surrounding you, and we are not going to back down. Mark my words: we already have the information we need," he added, vowing to defend the Constitution and protect the voice of the Indian people.

"Youth of India, I am proud of you. Keep protesting. We are standing with you," Rahul Gandhi added.

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accused the government of using the police and administrative machinery to suppress dissent, alleging that 254 MPs had been roughed up and detained before the latest crackdown on protesters.

She claimed that barricades, transport restrictions, internet curbs and checkpoints had effectively sealed off the capital.

"If this isn't proof that they have cheated the elections in collusion with the Election Commission, and are terrified that the illegitimacy of their government is being exposed and accountability is being demanded, then what is?" she wrote on X.

"India is not a democracy anymore. It is a dictatorship being run by Mr. Narendra Modi and Mr. Amit Shah," she added, accusing those colluding with the government to subvert democracy of "committing treason against the nation".

Former Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who said she had been detained along with four Trinamool Congress MPs while protesting at South Avenue in central Delhi, announced a sit-in at Dwarka North police station.

"4 pm. Along with our 4 MPs, we have started our dharna at Dwarka North PS where we have been brought. We were kidnapped and driven around in a prison van for two hours," she wrote.

Banerjee said she would not return to Kolkata that night and would join the INDIA bloc's march on Monday in protest against the treatment of young people and other demonstrators.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh invoked a Sanskrit saying to criticise the government over the developments in the capital.

"Seeing what is happening in the nation's capital today it is tempting to recall the old saying विनाशकाले विपरीतबुद्धि," he wrote, adding that this "विपरीतबुद्धि" had defined the "Diabolical Duo" for years.

"The so-called सेवा तीर्थ is actually a fast crumbling सत्ता तीर्थ," Ramesh added.

Another Congress leader, Pawan Khera, questioned why the government was deploying state machinery to prevent scrutiny of the electoral process.

"What does this government have to hide, if not the illegitimacy of its mandate, manufactured through the unconstitutional use of the ECI and police forces?" he wrote on X.

"Why else would it fear scrutiny, deny the Opposition a hearing, and deploy the full might of the state to silence questions from literally anyone and everyone about the very process that brought it to power?"

AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal also posted a brief message in Hindi, translated as: "The youth of the country have awakened."

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and party leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were detained by Delhi Police on Saturday after they arrived in the national capital to participate in the planned protest at Jantar Mantar.

Former Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, former Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar, CPI(M) general secretary M.A. Baby and veteran Left leader Brinda Karat were among those detained by police on Saturday.

AISA president Neha Bora, along with lawyer Prashant Bhushan, were detained separately.

Meanwhile, Delhi Police special commissioner (law and order) Devesh Srivastava said elaborate security arrangements had been made, with senior officers deployed and police forces in neighbouring states coordinating with Delhi authorities.

"The situation is under control. People who are going to Jantar Mantar are being detained as we had already said that no permission for such protest is granted," he told PTI.