Rahul Gandhi Leads Six‑Hour Sit‑In at Heritage All India Radio Campus

Rahul Gandhi held a six‑hour sit‑in on Tuesday at Delhi’s Akashvani Bhavan, the heritage All India Radio complex, as part of the opposition’s protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The leaders had originally planned to march from Parliament to the Election Commission’s Nirvachan Sadan, but police blocked the procession near the radio campus. Gandhi, Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other Congress figures then moved onto the campus to extend the demonstration. When officers began rounding up the protesters, Gandhi and Priyanka slipped through the only iron gate left open for staff and took positions under a large banyan tree. Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal, MP Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and leaders Manish Chatrath and B.V. Srinivas joined them. For the next six hours the northern part of the Akashvani grounds served as a makeshift protest arena until Delhi police forcibly detained the participants. Senior party members said the move shifted the focus from the traditional Sansad Marg route to the radio complex, a change made possible by the open gate. A senior official warned that the gate’s misuse will be prevented in future, noting the campus’s heritage status and its role housing news, drama and FM services built in the 1940s.

Context

The protest highlights how opposition groups in India sometimes adapt routes when police intervene, using public spaces with symbolic value such as a historic broadcasting centre.