India, New Delhi: Today, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi, and former prime minister Manmohan Singh courted arrest at the Parliament Street police station in New Delhi after they were disallowed from leading a ”Save Democracy’ rally to Parliament to highlight what they term as the “attack on democracy by the Narendra Modi government”.

In what appeared to be a breach of security, thousands of party workers and onlookers, broke through barricades and jostled with the former prime minister and the Congress party president — both of whom are SPG protectees — as they were being escorted from the rally towards the police station.
Click here for exclusive photos “How can they deny us permission to hold a peaceful rally? We were marching towards Parliament in a peaceful manner,” Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit told The Indian Express. Senior party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge as well as Janardhan Dwivedi later entered the police station in support of their party leadership.

They were later released. The party is agitating against what it calls the ‘anti-democratic’ policies of the BJP. In recent months, the Congress has alleged that there has been sustained efforts by the BJP to destabilise Congress-led governments in states like Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. While Arunachal saw a change in leadership, the latter hill state is under President’s Rule at the moment. The BJP, on its part, has pointed to the intense factionalism within the Congress for what has transpired in the two states. The two parties have also sparred in the current session of Parliament over the AgustaWestland issue.