Police briefly detained India’s main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and his sister, Priyanka Gandhi, as they staged a protest outside the residence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Gandhi demanded on Tuesday that Prime Minister Modi step down over the police crackdown against student protests calling for reforms in the education system.
Modi must resign "for destroying the future of India's youth", the Congress Party leader said in a post on social media as he led a march with other lawmakers towards the prime minister's residence in New Delhi.
"The government doesn't want to take any accountability, nor does it want to have a debate on it in parliament," said Gandhi, the leader of the opposition in the lower house.
Gandhi later staged a sit-in protest outside Modi's residence, where cries of "we want justice" were interspersed with chants of "down with Modi".
Hours later, Gandhi and other parliamentarians were bundled into a bus by police and taken away from the area.
Gandhi later shared pictures of himself being carried away by police, including one where he appeared to have some blood around his nose.
"This fight for justice for students will now not stop or be halted," he said on X.
The developments come after police said 60 protesters were wounded in clashes with security forces in the heart of New Delhi on Monday, marking the biggest street rally in the capital for about five years.
Thousands of protesters had gathered to demand the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, following an appeal by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) online movement.
Police fired tear gas and charged with batons at protesters.
Authorities also detained 70 demonstrators and said legal action would follow.
"What happened yesterday is our Constitution got trampled upon," Sandeep Dixit, a senior leader of the Congress party, told AFP.
"After that, no self-respecting politician or citizen can stand aside."
The CJP vowed to press on with its demands for Pradhan's removal as thousands of protesters remained camped at Delhi's Jantar Mantar protest site, many of them calling for changes to the wider education system.
The CJP has won millions of followers on social media since its launch in May, fuelling one of the biggest challenges to Hindu-nationalist leader Modi since he won his third term in office in 2024.
