Seeking to pile on the pressure on the Centre a day after the Cockroach Janta Party-led march to Parliament, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Priyanka Gandhi led a protest to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's residence in New Delhi on Tuesday. Sources suggested that Rahul Gandhi would continue the protest outside the PM's residence overnight, but he and other leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, were removed from the spot by the police around 6.40 pm.
Gandhi, who is the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, was surrounded by at least 10 police personnel as he sat on the road and refused to budge. He was eventually dragged away and was seen bleeding from his nose. Before the protest was broken up, Gandhi made an appeal for people to join him outside the PM's residence.
"An attack on students is an attack on every Indian family. PM Modi believes he can get away without answers, without consequences. He cannot. Not this time. I ask every patriotic Indian who believes our students deserve justice - join us in dharna in front of the Prime Minister's residence. The voice of India's students will not be ignored," he said in a post. The dramatic face-off between the Congress and the Centre began on Tuesday afternoon when workers led by Mallikarjun Kharge and the Gandhi siblings gathered outside the Congress president's house at 10, Rajaji Marg and marched to the PM's residence at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg, just over a kilometre away. In an unprecedented development, Union Minister Jitendra Singh later visited the protest site and spoke to Rahul Gandhi.
Congress leaders said the talks between Gandhi and Singh were inconclusive.
"They wanted us to withdraw the protest and we did not agree because our demands were not met. We want Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign and a discussion in Parliament on the paper leaks. More MPs, more Congress workers and more common people will join our protest," said Congress MP Syed Naseer Hussain.
Singh later alleged Gandhi had assured him the Congress would call off the protest if the government agreed to discuss all issues related to NEET and paper leaks in Parliament, and then went back on his word.