Coming out in support of Congress, the Shiv Sena said on Thursday detention of Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi by the Delhi Police was "shameful". "Rahul Gandhi and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia should not have been stopped from visiting the aggrieved family of a retired soldier who allegedly committed suicide over the One-Rank-One-Pension (OROP) issue," Sena spokesperson Arvind Sawant told reporters in Mumbai.
"What kind of an attitude is this? The action of Delhi Police was condemnable and shameful," said Sawant, an MP from Mumbai South constituency. "It was not right to politicise the alleged suicide and the family was not treated well. The issue has been politicised after detention of Rahul Gandhi and Sisodia," he added. "Rahul is Vice-President of a national party while Sisodia is Deputy Chief Minister of an elected government. Action should be taken against the erring Delhi Police officials," demanded Sawant.
The suicide by an army veteran over OROP on Wednesday snowballed into a huge political show with Rahul Gandhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other opposition leaders attacking the Narendra Modi government on the issue while there was high drama after police detained and prevented them from entering a hospital.
The Congress Vice President was detained twice and was finally released late in the evening as restrictions were put on Kejriwal's movements before he was briefly detained. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was kept in custody for close to 10 hours.
The leaders were detained when they tried to meet the family of Ram Kishan Grewal, 70, an ex-serviceman who ended his life on Tuesday by consuming poison on the lawns of a government building at Janpath in the heart of the national capital.
