Saturday 20 / April / 2024
New Delhi: The alleged suicide of an army veteran over the OROP issue on Wednesday snowballed into a huge political showdown in the capital with Rahul Gandhi being detained twice by Delhi police amid high drama and the movement of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal restricted.
Several leaders of Congress and Aam Aadmi Party including Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia were also held by the police even as Rahul and Kejriwal tore into Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Rahul said the Delhi police action was symbolic of "undemocratic" mentality of the Modi government while Kejriwal accused the prime minister of being guilty of "deceit" and indulging in "lies" over the One Rank One Pension(OROP) issue.
The Congress and AAP leaders also accused the Modi government of being responsible for the death of ex-serviceman Ram Kishan Grewal, 70, a resident of Haryana's Bhiwani district who ended his life on Tuesday by consuming poison on the lawns of a government building in Janpath. They alleged that the Delhi police was unleashed on them by resorting to unprecedented "hooliganism" in quelling their protests.
The Congress Vice President was detained at Mandir Marg and Parliament Street police stations while Kejriwal's movement was restricted when he went to meet the grieving family members of the deceased.
Rahul was later taken to Tughlaq road police station.
Twelve family members of the deceased including his son Jaswant were detained and some of them alleged that they were thrashed by police when they came out of Ram Manohar Lohiya hospital, where Grewal's body was kept. Several Congress leaders including Randeep Surjewala, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kumari Selja were detained while police was seen dragging scores of AAP workers and many office bearers outside the Parliament Street Police station. Sisodia was kept at the police station for several hours.
The Congress and AAP leaders called the police action an assault on democracy and fundamental rights while calling the treatment meted out to the grieving family as "utterly shameful" and "unprecedented.
The BJP on its part accused the Congress and AAP of playing politics over the suicide.
"A martyr's family is arrested. This is Modi ji's India," Rahul told reporters outside RML hospital.
"How can you arrest the son and father of martyr? And if you have not arrested them, then why are you not letting them go," he said after his request for releasing Grewal's family members was turned down.
"A new India is in the making, you have to identify it. What is happening in India today, you have to identify it. It is a result of their mentality. It is a particular type of mentality. It is an undemocratic type of mentality."
Tearing to Prime Minister Modi, Kejriwal asserted that Grewal's "martyrdom will not go in vain" and emphasised on the need to take his struggle forward.
"The Prime Minister is lying to the entire country claiming that OROP has been implemented. If it was implemented then why Ram Kishan had to commit suicide? The extent of the deceit of the BJP government over the issue is unprecedented."
Surjewala called the police action "naked goondaism by Modi government" adding, Rahul has been arrested along with sons of Grewal.
Rahul also vent his profound anger at policemen over the detention of Grewal's family members it "shameful" and symbolic of "undemocratic" mentality of the Modi government.
"Do you not feel ashamed? He is a son of an army veteran, he is his father... and you are arresting them?" a livid Rahul told policemen pointing towards the deceased soldier Ram Kishan Grewal's son and father.
"What is your name? You think the family of India's martyr should be arrested? Do you not feel ashamed?," Rahul asked a senior police officer at Mandir Marg police station.
Kejriwal's convoy was blocked for around three hours when he went to meet family members of Grewal at the Lady Hardinge hospital.
He expressed shock over police action, saying he has every right to meet the family in his capacity as chief minister.
"Why Delhi Chief Minister is being illegally stopped from meeting a grieving family? This is unprecedented. The PM should apologise for deceiving the soldiers over OROP."
Rahul was initially detained for around 70 minutes in the afternoon at the Mandir Marg police station and later in the evening was again taken into custody along with many other party leaders at the Parliament Street Police station.
Kejriwal also attacked the Centre over issue of surgical strikes and the recent controversies on 'downgrading' of military ranks and the 'cuts' in disability pension of defence personnel.
Grewal, who was a familiar face of OROP agitation, left behind a suicide note, his son said.
Police said he along with three of his companions had come to the city apparently to submit a memorandum to the Defence Ministry over the issue of OROP.
However, Defence Ministry sources said as per records, no request for appointment with Parrikar was made.
Grewal allegedly consumed poison on the lawns behind a government building in Janpath, the central area of the capital.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said he was saddened over the death of Grewal.
"Saddened by the death of subedar Ram Kishen Grewal. I express my heartfelt condolences. I have asked officials to provide me with details," Parrikar said in a tweet.
Amid the protests by Opposition parties, Union Minister V.K. Singh triggered a controversy when he said the "mental state" of Grewal needs to be probed before drawing conclusions about his extreme action.
"He has committed suicide. No one knows the reason behind it. OROP is being shown as the reason. What his mental state was we do not know.
Let it be probed first. OROP should be kept above politics," Singh told reporters, while reacting to alleged suicide by Grewal.
He went on to state that the Centre had accepted the long-pending demands of the agitating veterans and there was no need to get into "what one is saying for 4 paisa."
Singh's comments drew sharp reactions from Kejriwal and the Congress.
"Shame on u VKSingh. He twice got medals from President and once from COAS. He was a decorated soldier," Kejriwal tweeted.
According to his friends, Grewal, who served in the Army and the Defence Security Corps for 30 years, had been upset over the issue for sometime.
